BV  4501  .C6 

Cobb,  William 

Henry, 

1846- 

1923. 

The  meaning 

of  Christian 

iin  4  +"  V 

1 

THE 

MEANING  OF 

CHRISTIAN  UNITY 


BY 


WILLIAM  H.  COBB 


There's  a  wideness  in  God's  mercy 
Like  the  wideness  of  the  sea. 


NEW  YORK 

THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1915 
By  THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  COMPANY 


PREFACE 

A  time  when  half  the  Christian  world  is  in 
discord  that  threatens  destruction  is  a  good 
time  to  search  earnestly  for  the  foundations  of 
concord.  Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay 
than  that  which  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ. 

I  purpose  to  ask,  and  to  try  to  answer,  two 
questions  about  Christian  Unity;  what,  and 
how.  The  method  of  the  book  is  not  that  of 
formal  logic,  but  that  of  induction,  which 
gathers  the  facts  as  it  proceeds.  The  results, 
in  briefest  compass,  are  given  here  at  the  out- 
set, and  the  reader  who  takes  no  interest  in 
such  a  treatment  may  have  the  satisfaction  of 
laying  down  the  book  with  the  preface. 

Christian  unity  is  the  life  of  God  in  the 
lives  of  all  his  children. 

The  way  to  attain  it  is  by  the  diligent  use 

of  the  means  of  grace. 

William  H.  Cobb. 

Boston,  April  9,  1915. 
iii 


INTRODUCTION 

Since  God  is  the  Father  of  all  men,  all  men 
are  brothers,  even  though  they  know  it  not, 
and  even  though  they  know  him  not.  Since 
God  is  love,  we  ought  also  to  love  one  another, 
and  thus  become  worthy  children  of  our 
Father.  These  are  Christian  truths,  and  the 
ideal  they  set  before  us  is  Christian  unity,  a 
conception  as  much  broader  than  what  is  com- 
monly called  Church  unity  as  the  Lord's 
prayer  is  more  catholic  than  the  prayer  of  the 
Pharisee  in  the  temple.  We  seek  in  vain  for 
the  key  to  Christian  unity  until  we  realize  the 
relation  of  God  to  man  and  that  of  man  to  his 
brother  man. 

A  leading  obstacle  to  Christian  unity  is  the 
popular  habit  of  apprehending  God  as  a  great 
man  up  in  the  heavens,  instead  of  as  the  Great 
Spirit  working  everywhere.  The  former  no- 
tion gives  birth  to  unconscious  prejudices,  as 


vi  Introduction 


delicate,  but  yet  as  effective,  as  the  cords  that 
imprisoned  Gulliver  among  the  Lilliputians. 
That  sublime  song  in  the  opening  chapter  of 
the  Bible: 

So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image, 
In  the  image  of  God  created  he  him, 

is  not  to  be  reversed  and  belittled  by  man's 
attempt  to  create  God  in  his  image.  But  this 
is  the  inevitable  result  of  limiting  the  Infinite 
and  localizing  the  Omnipresent.  The  South 
Sea  Islander  invests  a  senseless  fetish  w^ith  his 
ow^n  passions ;  the  Mohammedan  projects  into 
the  sky  the  Fate  which  makes  or  mars  him; 
the  Jew,  called  to  be  an  apostle  of  Divine 
liberty  to  all  mankind,  has  too  often  narrowed 
his  mission  from  inclusion  to  exclusion,  and 
shaped  his  Creator  accordingly;  and  even  so, 
Judaism  in  the  Christian  Church  beholds  in 
its  God  the  lineaments  of  Cephas  or  Apollos. 
Putting  asunder  what  God  hath  joined  to- 
gether, it  refuses  to  believe  in  a  universal 
brotherhood  to  match  a  universal  fatherhood. 
Sectarian  lines  are  like  the  radii  of  a  circle, 
and  these  are  intersected  by  a  smaller  concen- 


Introduction  vii 


trie  circle.^  For  at  the  present  moment,  every 
so-called  denomination  of  Christians  is  prac- 
tically two  denominations ;  each  division  of  the 
army  of  the  Lord  divides  again  into  two  parts, 
dominated  respectively  by  spirit  and  form. 
Within  the  outer  circle  of  Christendom  lies  an 
inner  circle,  the  company  of  those,  however 
the  sectors  are  named,  who  face  the  centre, 
looking  to  Christ  for  their  orders ;  the  rest  face 
one  another  and  perpetuate  ''our  unhappy  di- 
visions." The  hopeful  feature  is  that  in  these 
latest  generations  the  smaller  circle  is  rapidly 
growing  larger  and  its  radii  are  growing 
fainter;  so  that  those  fragments  of  the  body  of 
Christ  that  give  prominence  to  form  are  far 
less  influential  than  was  the  case  a  century  ago. 
And  yet  they  belong  to  the  body;  the  centri- 
petal tendency  is  the  stronger  even  in  them. 
Indeed,  there  is  some  force  in  the  contention, 
which  we  shall  have  to  meet,  that  all  Chris- 
tians agree  in  certain  essential  forms  as  well  as 
in  an  essential  spirit.     Earnest  efforts  are  be- 

1  The  coincidence  with  the  diagram  on  p.  219  of  Bishop 
William  M.  Brown's  Level  Plan  of  Church  Union  is  purely 
accidental. 


viii  Introduction 


ing  put  forth  to  secure  a  general  expression  of 
concord  in  a  few  doctrines  of  the  historic 
creed  and  in  the  two  main  historic  sacraments. 
But  the  question  arises,  Where  then  shall  we 
find  room  for  such  a  saint  as  John  Woolman, 
for  instance,  and  for  the  Quakers  as  a  whole? 
The  writer  neither  belongs  to  that  fellowship 
nor  shares  its  peculiar  views;  but  as  every 
friend  of  Christ  is  a  Christian,  and  is  known 
by  his  fruits,  no  one  can  deny  the  Christianity 
of  the  Friends.  We  could  better  afford  to 
lose  all  the  theology  of  the  Schoolmen  than 
the  Quaker  poet's  hymns : 

"Immortal  Love,  forever  full." 
*'Dear  Lord  and  Father  of  mankind." 
*'0  Love  !  O  Light !  our  faith  and  sight 
Thy  presence  maketh  one." 

It  might  be  replied  that  these  Friends  as  well 
as  other  Christians  must  be  educated  into  ac- 
ceptance of  those  essential  forms  which  belong 
to  the  true  ideal  of  Christian  unity;  but  the 
following  treatise  ventures  to  deny  the  major 
premise  of  that  argument.  It  attempts  to 
show  that  there  are  no  such  essential  forms; 


Introduction  ix 


that  Christian  unity  is  independent  of  all 
forms,  and  lies  below  them  like  primitive  rock 
below  the  later  deposits.  It  would  be  wrong 
to  assume  at  the  outset  the  point  to  be  proved ; 
this  Introduction  asks  only  for  an  open  mind, 
in  view  of  the  importance  of  the  main  thought 
of  the  book,  provided  It  can  be  established. 

Turning  away  now,  in  appearance  only, 
from  the  theme  in  hand,  we  do  well  to  ignore 
for  the  moment  the  distinction  between  sacred 
and  secular,  and  to  fix  our  thought  upon  the 
vast  complexity  of  the  world  in  which  we  have 
our  being.  It  is  customary  to  write  Nature 
with  a  capital  N,  and  to  designate  it  by  a  fem- 
inine pronoun ;  but  Christians  do  not  really  be- 
lieve in  such  a  mythological  goddess.  It  is 
Our  Father  who 

Warms  in  the  sun,  refreshes  in  the  breeze, 
Glows  in  the  stars,  and  blossoms  in  the  trees. 

The  one  hundred  and  fourth  Psalm  sums 
up  a  miscellaneous  catalog  embracing  (among 
other  objects)  rocks  and  waters,  herbs  and 
grass,  birds  and  conies,  lions  and  men, — with 
the  exclamation,  ^'Jehovah,  how  manifold  are 


Introduction 


Thy  works!"  Everything  except  sin  is  His 
work;  this  much,  at  least,  is  true  in  the  theory 
of  evolution,  that  the  manifoldness  of  God  is 
expressed  in  a  constant  progress  of  creation 
from  simplicity  to  variety.  The  science  of 
man,  like  the  science  of  things,  discloses  the 
same  law.  It  would  be  futile  to  expect  hu- 
manity ever  to  return  to  simple  savagery ;  mod- 
ern life,  the  life  of  the  family,  of  society,  of 
business,  of  art,  of  literature,  of  science,  of 
politics,  of  religion,  is  far  too  rich  and  full  to 
be  surrendered.  The  one  God  manifests  him- 
self in  these  and  other  ways,  every  one  of  them 
belonging  to  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  this 
plain  fact  brings  us  back  at  once  to  our  sub- 
ject. To  illustrate  it  from  the  field  of  poli- 
tics; President  Wilson  has  been  attempting 
to  administer  the  government  of  the  United 
States  on  Christian  principles.  One  need  not 
accept  his  political  theories  while  admitting 
(as  prominent  opponents  have  frankly  admit- 
ted) that  his  motto  in  dealing  with  compli- 
cated relations  both  at  home  and  abroad  is 
the  Christian  motto,  "we  seek  not  yours  but 


Introduction  xi 


you."  The  fact  that  Christ  will  reign  in 
politics  when,  and  not  before,  that  spirit  per- 
vades all  the  nations  of  earth,  is  simply  axio- 
matic. Take  another  illustration,  from  the 
field  of  literature.  The  book  of  fiction  that 
seems  to  have  been  most  widely  read  in  Amer- 
ica during  the  last  two  years  is  ''The  Inside 
of  the  Cup."  The  reason  is  not  far  to  seek. 
The  book  is  full  to  overflowing  of  a  genuine 
love  for  humanity.  Testing  it  by  that  word  of 
our  Lord:  'Whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of 
my  Father  in  heaven,  the  same  is  my  brother," 
we  realize  that  it  rings  true,  and  sounds  a  note 
in  harmony  with  the  gospel,  while  yet  it  stands 
apart  from  organized  Christianity  if  indeed 
it  does  not  openly  oppose  it.  Here  then  is 
such  another  problem  as  was  presented  by  the 
Quakers.  Like  causes  produce  like  effects, 
up  and  down  the  whole  range  of  human  na- 
ture. Christian  unity  must  comprehend  the 
beating  of  the  people's  heart.  That  which 
lies  deeper  in  us  than  creeds  and  rituals  is 
stirred  most  profoundly  by  the  Christian  spirit 
as  manifest  in  politics  and  in  literature.     It 


xii  Introduction 


is  a  spirit  which  finds  us,  as  Coleridge  said  of 
the  Bible.  Those  friends  who  are  striving  for 
the  formal  and  confessional  unity  of  the 
Church  may  perhaps  secure  the  addition  to 
their  number  of  a  few  millions  or  even  a  few 
score  millions  of  believers ;  but  what  have  they 
for  the  great  world  of  humanity  outside  their 
fold,  for  the  hundreds  of  millions  who  are 
made  kin  by  one  touch  of  nature?  Appar- 
ently they  would  relegate  these  to  the  nebulous 
spaces,  the  external  segments  of  Christendom, 
whereas  that  place  (as  we  aim  to  show)  be- 
longs to  form  and  not  to  spirit.  John  said, 
"He  foUoweth  not  us";  but  Jesus  said,  "He 
that  is  not  against  us  is  for  us." 

We  proceed  at  once  to  consider  "The  Mean- 
ing of  Christian  Unity,"  a  subject  which  falls 
naturally  into  two  parts,  doctrine  and  duty. 
For  the  first,  we  seek  to  learn  the  mind  of  the 
Master;  for  the  second,  we  ask  how  to  embody 
his  spirit  in  everyday  living. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface iii 

Introduction v 


PART  I.     THE  TEACHING  OF  CHRIST 

CHAPTER 

I     The  Cardinal  Precept 3 

II     The  Lord's  Prayer ii 

III  Parallel  Teachings 26 

IV  The  Underlying  Harmony  of  Christ's 

Teachings 42 

PART  II.     OUR  CONSEQUENT  DUTIES 

I    The  True  Point  of  View 61 

II    The  Home 72 

III  The  School 89 

IV  The  Calling 105 

V    The  State 125 

VI    The  Bible 141 

VII    The  Local  Church 161 

VIII    The  Catholic  Church 180 

IX    The  Kingdom 204 

X    Retrospect 221 

Index 237 

xiii 


PART  I 
THE  TEACHING  OF  CHRIST 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  CARDINAL  PRECEPT 

A  GOOD  book  which  ought  to  be  better  known 
is  entitled  The  Central  Teaching  of  Jesus 
Christ  (London,  1892).^  It  is  not  super- 
seded by  Swete's  recent  discussion  of  the  same 
portion  of  Scripture  (London,  1913).  Dr. 
Bernard  finds  that  teaching  in  the  gospel  of 
John,  chapters  thirteen  to  seventeen,  and  he 
makes  it  very  clear  that  this  teaching  is  really 
central,  for  it  closes  Christ's  teaching  in  the 
flesh  and  leads  on  to  his  teaching  in  the  spirit. 
When  we  consider  on  the  one  hand  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  and  on  the  other  hand  the 
apostolic  epistles,  it  is  manifest  that  there  is 
a  wide  diversity  of  doctrine  between  these 
two  groups.  The  gospel  of  John  (to  regard 
not  its  date  but  its  content)  is  the  bridge 
that  unites  them,  and  these  five  chapters,  espe- 
cially, make  the  whole  teaching  continuous. 

1  By  Thomas  D.  Bernard,  author  of  The  Progress  of  Doctrine 
in  the  New  Testament,  the  Bampton  lecture  for  1864. 

3 


4         The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

The  doctrines  of  the  person  of  Christ,  of  faith 
in  him,  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  and 
many  another,  which  we  find  in  the  epistles  in 
a  form  somewhat  developed,  are  present  in 
germ  in  the  discourses  of  the  last  evening.  It 
is  equally  plain  that  the  culmination  of  the 
whole  is  reached  in  that  wonderful  prayer 
which  takes  up  into  the  most  holy  place  these 
weak  disciples  and  includes  them  and  all  other 
followers  of  Jesus  in  one  goodly  fellowship. 
"Neither  for  these  only  do  I  pray,  but  for 
them  also  that  believe  on  me  through  their 
word;  in  order  that  they  may  all  be  one;  even 
as  thou.  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee,  that 
they  also  may  be  in  us ;  that  the  world  may  be- 
lieve that  thou  didst  send  me."  Certainly 
this  prayer  of  Jesus  is  a  teaching  of  the  loftiest 
order;  it  is  a  program  as  well  as  a  prayer;  and 
if  noblesse  oblige  it  binds  all  who  name  the 
name  of  Christ  to  a  sacred  duty.  The  duty 
we  shall  consider  hereafter;  it  is  the  doctrine 
that  is  before  us  now.  There  is  a  call  here  to 
Christian  intelligence;  "understandest  thou 
what  thou  readest?" 


The  Cardinal  Precept 


It  would  be  of  merely  curious  interest  to 
take  up  and  discuss,  one  by  one,  the  different 
conceptions  that  have  been  held  of  what 
Christ  meant  by  the  unity  for  which  he  made 
request  of  his  Father.  We  are  all  indebted  to 
the  German  commentators  for  patient  and  ex- 
haustive researches  into  the  history  of  inter- 
pretation; but  few  Americans  will  take  the 
time  to  follow  out  all  these  mazes,  and  the 
book  I  am  writing  makes  its  chief  appeal  to 
practical  people.  Let  it  suffice  to  offer  a 
brief  summary  in  the  form  of  contrasts.  The 
passage  refers  either  to  the  whole  world  or  to 
a  part  of  it.  If  to  the  whole  world,  then 
either  (a)  actually  or  (b)  ideally.  If  to  a 
part,  then  either  (c)  to  Christians  as  distinct 
from  the  world,  or  (d)  to  Christians  as  acting 
on  the  world.  These  four  possibilities  we 
will  take  up  in  order. 

A.  Christ  declares  the  actual  unity  in  him 
of  all  living  souls,  past,  present,  and  future. 

This  was  an  early  form  of  the  doctrine  com- 
monly known  as  Universalism.  It  taught  that 
the  redeeming  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 


6         The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

is  actually  possessed  by  every  member  of  the 
human  race.  This  doctrine  is  regarded  by 
some  as  a  fatal  error,  by  others  as  a  glorious 
truth.  It  is  neither  to  be  condemned  out  of 
hand,  from  prejudice  against  heresy,  nor  to  be 
embraced  at  the  start,  from  enthusiasm  for 
humanity.  No  one  can  deny  the  grandeur  of 
this  conception,  a  whole  world  actually  and 
already  redeemed  by  Christ  the  Saviour. 
The  truth  of  it  is  sought  to  be  established 
by  various  lines  of  argument,  but  at  pres- 
ent we  are  concerned  with  the  seventeenth 
chapter  of  John,  and  it  lies  on  the  surface  of 
that  passage  that  "the  world"  is  in  manifest 
opposition  to  the  disciples  for  whose  unity  the 
Saviour  prays;  the  two  cannot  coincide  with- 
out a  great  strain,  not  to  say  twist,  of  interpre- 
tation. The  world  knows  not  God  (verse  25) 
and  hates  the  disciples  (verse  14),  who  are  not 
of  the  world  (verse  16).  The  passage  may 
well  be  consistent  with  that  other  and  preva- 
lent form  of  Universalism  which  adjourns  to 
the  future  the  unity  of  the  race  in  Christ,  but 


The  Cardinal  Precept 


hardly  with  the  theory  of  a  unity  then  and 
now  present. 

B.  Humanity  as  a  whole  is  in  Christ 
ideally,  as  the  oak  is  wrapped  up  in  the  acorn. 

No  one  would  say  that  the  oak  is  actually 
in  the  acorn,  much  less  that  the  entire  popula- 
tion of  all  the  generations  of  mankind  was 
literally  present  in  the  first  man.  But  as  the 
seed  of  Adam  develops  into  all  the  races  and 
kindreds  of  the  globe,  so  (it  is  said)  Christ  is 
the  seed  of  a  new  humanity,  a  humanity  per- 
fect and  universal  in  the  idea  of  God  from 
all  eternity.  When  Jesus  prays  that  all  may 
be  one,  it  is  the  ideal  humanity  which  he  has 
in  mind. 

This  philosophical  conception  harmonizes 
well  with  the  Greek  speculations  that  have 
swayed  Christendom  through  the  greater  por- 
tion of  the  Christian  era.  They  played  an 
important  part  in  the  earnest  controversies 
of  the  schoolmen,  but  they  have  little  practical 
value  today.  Fifty  years  ago  a  few  the- 
ologians were  still  contending  that  the  generic 


8         The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

race  was  in  Adam,  and  that  the  generic  race 
is  in  Christ,  but  our  own  generation  is  soundly 
converted  to  the  specific  rather  than  the  ge- 
neric view,  to  men  and  women  on  the  earth, 
as  opposed  to  an  ideal  humanity  in  the  air. 
Jesus  himself  was  a  brother  man  of  the  order 
of  the  Good  Samaritans,  not  a  Platonic  phi- 
losopher, and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  those  who 
find  a  metaphysical  race-unity  in  this  chapter 
of  John,  read  it  into  the  text  artificially  in- 
stead of  drawing  it  out  naturally. 

C.  The  passage  refers  to  the  elect,  a 
definite  number  known  to  God  and  set  to 
testify  against  a  hostile  world. 

This  theory  is  consistent  with  itself,  and 
with  the  phrases  already  quoted  from  our 
chapter;  compare  also  verse  9: 

"I  pray  for  them ;  I  pray  not  for  the  world." 

It  is  SO  easy  and  natural  an  interpretation  from 
the  standpoint  of  human  pride  and  bigotry 
that  its  long  prevalence  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at.  But  its  days  are  numbered  if  not  over; 
the   Christ  of   the  gospels   has  been  exalted 


The  Cardinal  Precept 


in  all  the  power  of  his  redeeming  love,  and  the 
Christian  consciousness  simply  refuses  to 
adopt  the  narrow  conception  which  this  Cal- 
vinistic  theory  favors.  As  an  exegesis  of  our 
cardinal  precept,  though  it  may  seem  to  be 
favored  by  a  few  expressions  in  the  context,  it 
shatters  against  others  of  a  large  and  liberal 
scope;  as  verse  21,  ''that  the  world  may  be- 
lieve," verse  23,  ''that  the  world  may  know." 
We  come  then  to 

D.  The  program  of  Christ  is  the  transfor- 
mation of  the  whole  world  by  a  united  broth- 
erhood. This  differs  from  (a)  and  (b)  as  a 
dynamic  differs  from  a  static  force.  That 
which  (a)  declares  to  be  a  fact  appears  to  (d) 
a  desirable  goal.  And  are  we  not  bound  to 
confess,  even  in  the  judgment  of  charity: 
"we  see  not  yet  all  things  put  under  him"; 
"there  remaineth  yet  much  land  to  be 
possessed"? 

That  which  (b)  holds  as  a  concept  of  the 
mind  becomes  with  (d)  a  task  to  be  achieved; 
note  the  phrases  just  quoted:  "that  the  world 
may  believe,"  etc.     And  is  not  the  latter  view, 


lo       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

rather  than  the  former,  in  harmony  with  the 
Gospels,  the  Acts,  and  the  Epistles?  Just  as 
brotherhood  differs  from  warfare,  (d)  differs 
from  (c)  ;  while  it  was  true  in  Christ's  day 
that  friendship  with  the  world  was  enmity 
with  God,  it  was  not  to  be  so  always,  for  Christ 
himself  foresaw  the  spread  of  his  gospel  over 
all  the  earth. 

It  is  the  mark  of  a  narrow  theory  to  account 
for  some  of  the  facts  in  hand ;  it  is  the  mark  of 
a  true  theory  to  account  for  all  the  facts  in 
hand.  When  we  thrust  this  conception  of 
Christian  unity  that  we  have  called  (d)  in 
among  other  great  teachings  of  Christ,  it  will 
be  seen  whether  or  not  it  groups  them  about 
itself  in  harmony  and  order. 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  lord's   prayer 


It  is  a  good  custom,  in  some  of  the  churches 
where  the  invocation  is  closed  with  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  for  the  leader  to  make  very  definite 
the  point  of  transition  to  that  prayer;  for 
otherwise  the  congregation  is  apt  to  leave  out 
the  first  two  words;  and  these  I  am  inclined 
to  regard  as  the  best  of  all.  How  catholic 
they  are!  It  was  a  Jew  who  taught  us  to  say 
"Our  Father,"  but  Gentiles  also  can  plead: 
"Doubtless  thou  art  our  Father,  though  Abra- 
ham be  ignorant  of  us  and  Israel  acknowledge 
us  not."  Mohammedan  children  can  join 
from  the  heart  in  saying,  with  Jewish  and 
Christian  children:  "Our  Father,  who  art  in 
heaven."  And  surely  no  Christian  will  pre- 
tend that  when  we  step  outside  the  circle  of 
these  three  great  religions  which  already  ac- 
knowledge the  one  Heavenly  Father,  there  is 
any  barrier  of  his  raising  that  would  forbid 

IX 


12       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

the  appeal  to  his  fatherhood  from  any  child 
whom  he  has  created  in  his  image,  or  that, 
would  justify  such  exclusiveness  on  the  part 
of  any  disciple.  We  rise  on  the  wings  of  that 
simple  word  Our,  and  the  prospect  covers 
the  whole  field  of  humanity,  and  kindles  hope 
in  a  vital  unity  of  all  our  race  in  God  the  one 
Father.  We  see  new  depths  of  meaning  in  the 
word  so  often  lightly  spoken,  "fellowmen" : 

''For  so  the  whole  round  world  is  every  way 
Bound  with  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God." 

But  leaving  these  general  considerations, 
we  do  well  to  examine  the  separate  petitions 
and  to  consider  what  it  is  that  we  pray  for  in 
each.  (Cf.  Maurice,  The  Lord's  Prayer, 
London,  1870). 

Hallowed  be  thy  name. 

Primitive  prayers  are  such  as  those  rejected 
by  Solomon  at  Gibeon  (I  Kings  3:11); 
prayers  for  long  life,  and  riches,  and  the  life 
of  one's  enemies.  Not  so  naively,  but  yet  as 
effectually,  modern  man  is  wont  to  put  self 
first  and  foremost  in  the  things  he  seeks  from 
God.     The  point  to  be  noticed  here  is  that 


The  Lord's  Prayer  13 

self,  under  whatever  disguises,  always  divides 
men,  while  the  first  petition  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer  unites  them.  If  I  ask  for  the  life  of 
my  enemies,  and  they  ask  for  mine,  and  both 
prayers  are  granted,  the  world  is  on  its  way 
to  destruction.  To  covet  my  neighbor's  goods 
is  as  plainly  divisive.  There  are  only  two 
kinds  of  people  in  the  world ;  those  whose  chief 
desire  is  to  get  and  those  whose  chief  desire 
is  to  give,  the  dividers  and  the  uniters.  The 
one  power  that  is  adequate  to  keep  us  stead- 
fastly in  this  latter  class  is  the  vision  of  the 
true  God,  whose  name  is  Love.  In  the  hal- 
lowing of  that  name,  we  are  lifted  as  by  a 
celestial  tide,  and  floated  away  from  all  that 
is  selfish  and  narrow  and  low;  the  impulse 
to  get  is  melted  out  of  us ;  the  governing  pur- 
pose of  life  becomes  godlike,  that  is,  loving; 
and  we  see  with  new  eyes — with  our  Father's 
eyes — the  members  of  his  great  family.  The 
most  opposite  classes  and  conditions  of  men 
meet  in  this  petition;  on  the  one  hand,  it 
voices  the  aspiration  of  the  sublimest  mystics; 
on  the  other,  it  is  painfully  pronounced  in  the 


14       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

last  breath  of  the  street  waif  whom  Dickens 
has  drawn  for  us  in  the  character  of  poor  Joe. 
Our  Lord,  at  the  day  of  judgment,  will  say 
to  those  of  us  to  whom  he  can  say  it  truth- 
fully: "Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto 
one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have 
done  it  unto  me."  And  that  is  to  hallow  his 
name  and  the  name  of  his  Father. 

Thy  kingdom  come. 

At  the  time  of  this  writing,  there  is  deep 
and  wide-spread  attention,  throughout  our 
land,  to  the  things  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
From  far  and  near  come  the  good  tidings  that 
pastors  and  churches  of  every  name  are  ex- 
horting one  another  to  lay  aside  every  weight, 
and  look  up  to  God  for  his  blessing,  and 
gladly  spend  and  be  spent  to  win  souls  to 
Christ.  It  is  difficult  to  keep  pace  with  the 
triumphs  of  the  cross  of  Christ  at  home  and 
abroad;  and  every  advance  is  marked  by  the 
breaking  down  of  middle  walls  of  partition, 
and  by  the  pervasive  spread  of  Christian 
brotherhood.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  right- 
eousness and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  15 

When  Paul  wrote  those  words,  Rome  was  rul- 
ing the  world  with  a  rod  of  iron;  Paul's  words 
are  no  more  contradicted  by  the  recent  out- 
burst of  militarism  in  Europe  than  by  the  his- 
tory of  his  own  time.  ^Torce  and  right  rule 
the  world;  force  till  right  is  ready."  He  is 
faithful  that  promised:  the  kingdom  and  the 
greatness  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  given  unto 
the  people  of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High. 
Any  man  with  a  conscience  ought  to  know  that 
war  is  contrary  to  the  kingdom  of  God,  and 
that  peace  is  the  fruit  of  the  kingdom.  It  was 
well  for  America  to  celebrate  the  first  hun- 
dred years  of  peace  with  her  ancient  foe,  on 
the  longest  frontier  in  the  world.  The  Chris- 
tian hosts  of  every  land  march  on  together  to 
gain  the  world  for  him  whose  right  it  is  to 
reign.  And  we  must  not  forget  to  measure 
our  success  by  the  standard  which  Christ  him- 
self has  supplied  in  the  next  petition  of  his 
prayer: 

Thy  will  be  done  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

Nothing  less  extensive  than  the  earth,  noth- 
ing less  intensive  than  the  will  of  our  Father 


1 6       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

in  heaven,  can  interpret  his  kingdom.  We 
might  divide  the  world  into  two  classes  on  an- 
other principle  from  that  mentioned  before, 
namely  into  those  whose  ruling  motive  is  ''Thy 
will  be  done,"  and  those  whose  ruling  motive 
is  ''My  will  be  done."  We  must  be  honest 
enough  to  acknowledge,  however,  that  from 
the  Christian  standpoint  this  division  does 
not  separate  the  sheep  from  the  goats.  For 
all  sincere  religion  is  grounded  on  self-renun- 
ciation; Brahmanists  and  Buddhists  give  more 
perfect  examples  of  such  a  surrender  than 
Christians.  But  everything  depends  on  the 
noun  represented  by  the  pronoun  Thy.  Who 
is  this  that  demands  supremacy  over  my  will? 
Goodness  and  greatness  alone  will  not  author- 
ize it;  if  the  angel  Gabriel  makes  such  a  claim, 
I  can  match  my  immortality  against  his,  while 
he  himself  must  confess,  "I  am  thy  fellow- 
servant."  We  are  fellow-servants  of  whom, 
then?  of  the  dark  and  stern  powers  which  the 
sinful  imaginations  of  men  have  projected 
into  the  heavens  as  their  gods?  of  the  empty 
Nirvana  of  Buddhism,  or  the  equally  empty 


The  Lord^s  Prayer  17 

Substance  of  Pantheism?  Nay,  rather,  we 
must  assume  that  all  who  are  praying  the 
Lord's  Prayer  with  us  have  begun  at  the  be- 
ginning, have  learned  Our  Father's  name  and 
learned  to  hallow  it.  It  is  as  foolish  as  wicked 
to  be  rebellious  children  when  Love  is  at  the 
head  of  the  family.  With  sweet  and  glad 
submissiveness  we  yield  our  wills  to  the  King 
of  Love,  our  Shepherd. 

Yet  this  is  not  all  of  the  petition,  and  resig- 
nation is  the  least  part  of  it.  "In  earth  as  it 
is  in  heaven"  is  a  summons  to  the  fullest  and 
purest  activity  of  which  a  soul  is  capable. 
"In  earth"  tells  us  that  the  field  is  the  world; 
"in  heaven"  holds  up  the  loftiest  conceivable 
standard  as  the  goal  for  all  the  populations  of 
that  field.  It  is  Christian  unity  which  is 
aimed  at  in  this  petition  of  the  Lord's  Prayer; 
it  is  Christian  people  who  are  the  agents 
through  whom  the  Lord  is  to  realize  his  ideal ; 
an  ideal  imperfectly  attained  until  you  and 
I  are  in  harmony  with  our  neighbors,  and  also 
with  our  enemies,  and  also  with  the  races  that 
we  have  despised,  and  also  with  the  poor  that 


1 8       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

we  have  slighted.  What  a  solvent  for  every 
social  problem  that  presents  itself  to  us! 
^^How  do  they  feel  about  this  in  heaven?" 
As  in  heaven,  so  in  earth. 

Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread. 
Political  Economy,  sometimes  called  the 
dismal  science,  would  deserve  that  name  if  it 
fell  to  exploiting  the  weak  and  poor  for  the 
sake  of  the  rich  and  strong.  When  we  reach 
the  word  us  in  the  petitions  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  question  presses:  "how  many  of 
us?"  Is  it  to  be  the  fittest  who  survive  or  is 
mercy  to  rejoice  against  judgment?  Chris- 
tianity reaches  its  social  climax  in  the  motto: 
"We  then  that  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the 
infirmities  of  the  weak  and  not  to  please  our- 
selves." Each  petition  of  the  prayer  links 
back  to  the  opening  address,^  and  so  when  we 
pray  we  say :  ^^Our  Father,  give  us  this  day  our 
daily  bread."  Here  are  three  pronouns  in  the 
first  person  plural  and  all  must  be  co-exten- 
sive; but  how  seldom  we  realize  that!    We 

lA    familiar    hymn    by    Rev.    Charles    G.    Ames,    beginning 
"Father  in  heaven,  hear  us  today,"  brings  this  out  finely. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  19 

are  catholic  enough  in  theory  to  admit  the  ref- 
erence of  the  word  our  to  all  humanity;  but 
in  practise  do  we  not  often  mean:  "Give  our 
family  their  daily  bread"?  Praying  thus,  we 
put  asunder  what  God  hath  joined  together. 
Not  long  ago,  our  hearts  were  stirred  by  a 
sore  famine  in  Japan.  This  last  year  we  have 
sent  great  shiploads  of  food  to  relieve  famine 
in  Belgium.  At  almost  any  time,  there  is  a 
sore  famine  in  India.  At  almost  any  time 
there  is  keen  suffering  somewhere  in  our 
homeland  for  want  of  bread.  Well  may  our 
hearts  bleed  at  the  gaunt  and  ghastly  forms  of 
distress  among  the  children  of  our  Father  in 
the  four  quarters  of  the  world;  well  may  each 
of  us  bear  them  in  his  arms  of  faith,  and  iden- 
tify himself  with  them,  and  present  them  at 
the  throne  of  grace,  saying:  '^Our  Father,  give 
us  our  bread.  Thou  hast  all  power,  and  thy 
name  is  Love.  Touch  with  divine  compas- 
sion the  hearts  of  Christian  people,  that  they 
may  be  Christians  indeed,  and  may  share  with 
these  multitudes  who  faint  and  are  scattered 
abroad  like  shepherdless  sheep." 


20       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

No  one  can  pray  that  prayer  sincerely  with- 
out trying  to  help.  There  is  no  dispute  about 
Christian  unity  among  those  who  are  working 
together  for  the  relief  of  God's  poor. 

The  prophet  tells  of  a  famine,  not  of  bread' 
but  of  the  word  of  the  Lord.  The  hunger  of 
the  soul  is  the  direst  need  known  to  our  poor 
human  nature.  One  who  prays  the  Lord's 
Prayer  will  be  fervent  in  supplication  for  the 
prodigals  who  have  only  husks  to  eat.  He 
will  cry:  ^^Thou  art  the  bread  of  life;  Lord, 
evermore  give  us  this  bread!"  One  who 
looks  on  the  faces  and  hears  the  voices  of  men 
who  but  a  little  while  ago  were  famishing 
miserably  in  sin  and  shame,  but  who  have 
tasted  of  the  bread  of  life  and  are  rejoicing 
in  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  will  find  it  better 
to  see  and  hear  them  than  even  to  read  the 
same  things  in  Harold  Begbie's  books.  The 
absolute  oneness  of  these  ransomed  souls  with 
their  refined  Christian  teachers  is  a  cross- 
section  of  the  great  cable  of  love  which  is 
stretching  around  the  world  to  bind  together 
all  the  children  of  God  in  Christian  unity. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  21 

And  forgive  us  our  debts  as  we  forgive  our 
debtors. 

Embedded  in  the  Lord's  Prayer  we  seem  to 
encounter  the  rule  of  three.  Divine  and 
human  forgiveness  are  compared  and  even 
equated.  If  repetition  of  the  formula  had 
not  blunted  our  perceptions,  the  result  w^ould 
plunge  us  into  hopeless  gloom.  It  makes  the 
case  worse  when  we  realize  that  this  is  not 
a  statement  but  a  prayer;  so  be,  instead  of 
so  are,  our  debts  to  his  pardon;  that  is 
imprecating  perdition  upon  ourselves.  The 
Lord,  who  taught  us  the  prayer,  willeth  not 
that  any  should  perish;  it  must  be  that  we 
have  failed  to  understand  him.  And  no  mar- 
vel; for  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the 
earth,  so  are  God's  ways  higher  than  our  ways. 
The  average  man  is  an  exacter,  not  a  forgiven 
He  holds  his  fellow-men  to  every  obligation; 
he  marks  their  trespasses  and  believes  it  manly 
to  resent  them.  The  Psalmist  asks :  *'If  thou, 
Lord,  shouldst  mark  iniquity,  O  Lord,  who 
should  stand?"  and  then  he  adds  very  beauti- 
fully: ^^but  there  is  forgiveness  with  thee." 


22       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

That  average  man  has  been  wresting  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  saying  in  spirit  if  not  in  words: 
^'my  Father,  forgive  me  my  debts."  Had  he 
opened  his  heart  to  the  surging  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  sins  against  himself  would  have 
coalesced  with  his  own,  and  like  the  high 
priest  of  Israel  he  would  have  sent  them  all 
away  into  a  land  of  forgetfulness.  There  is 
no  praying  this  prayer  if  we  determine  to 
abide  in  isolation;  ^^forgive  us"  means  "for- 
give all  sinners  everywhere."  It  is  just  be- 
cause God  is  love  that  he  delivers  us  from  our 
selfish  prayers  and  forgives  us  far  more  than 
we  forgive.  The  Holy  Spirit  in  us  leaves  no 
room  for  unforgivingness;  and  here  the  paral- 
lel in  Luke  will  clinch  the  truth:  "Forgive  us 
our  sins;  for  we  ourselves  also  forgive  every 
one  that  is  indebted  to  us."  Is  it  not  clear 
that  thus  we  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
bond  of  peace? 

And  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver 
us  from  evil. 

It  is  customary  to  divide  this  into  two  peti- 
tions in  order  to  make  out  the  sacred  number 


The  Lord's  Prayer  23 

seven;  but  we  must  not  charge  our  Lord  with 
tithing  mint,  anise  and  cummin.  There  is  no 
good  reason  for  stopping  short  of  the  full  sen- 
tence. The  previous  petition  related  to  the 
past,  this  relates  to  the  future.  The  past  we 
cannot  blot  out,  but  infinite  mercy  can  make 
it  as  though  it  had  never  been.  That  mercy 
we  implore;  and  it  alone  can  shield  us  for  the 
future,  delivering  us  from  staining  its  clean 
leaves,  keeping  us  from  temptation  and  from 
all  evil,  whether  or  not  we  regard  it  as  summed 
up  in  a  personal  head.  God  leads  us,  and 
temptation  is  in  the  way;  but  we  pray  that  he 
will  not  "bring  us  into,"  and  leave  us  under, 
its  power;  '^nay,  rather,"  that  he  will  deliver 
his  darling  from  the  power  of  the  dog.  Our 
wills  are  weak  as  water,  but  he  is  almighty; 
our  wills  are  ours  to  make  them  his.  It  was  a 
true  feeling  in  the  ancient  church  which  led 
to  the  insertion  just  here  of  the  doxology  from 
I  Chronicles  29:  11. 

Does  not  every  Christian  feel,  when  he  of- 
fers this  closing  petition,  that  he  is  joining 
with  all  God's  children  ever3rvvhere?     Temp- 


24       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

tation  is  common  to  all;  all  have  sinned  and 
come  short  of  the  glory  of  God.  Evil  has  put 
upon  all  men  the  ugly  mark  of  the  beast. 
When  God  pours  upon  us  the  spirit  of  grace 
and  of  supplication,  w^e  become  intercessors. 
In  our  small  measure,  we  are  made  partakers 
of  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  w^ho  bore  upon  his 
soul  the  burden  of  the  sins  of  the  w^orld.  In 
his  spirit  we  put  up  our  common  prayer: 
"That  it  may  please  thee  to  bring  into  the  way 
of  truth  all  such  as  have  erred  and  are  de- 
ceived: we  beseech  thee  to  hear  us,  good 
Lord."  "That  it  may  please  thee  to  have 
mercy  upon  all  men :  we  beseech  thee  to  hear 
us,  good  Lord."  "Lead  us  not  into  tempta- 
tion but  deliver  us  from  evil :  for  thine  is  the 
kingdom  and  the  power  and  the  glory  forever. 
Amen." 

When  this  petition,  and  when  the  Lord's 
Prayer  as  a  whole,  shall  be  offered  everywhere 
in  sincerity  and  truth,  Christian  unity  will  be 
an  accomplished  fact.  In  however  miscellan- 
eous a  congregation  the  Lord's  Prayer  is  about 
to  be  offered,  the  exhortation  has  its  fullest 


The  Lord's  Prayer  25 

force:  let  us  unite  in  prayer.  And  since 
prayer  is  the  highest  form  of  divine  service, 
all  v^ho  are  one  in  prayer  are  one  in  God. 


CHAPTER  III 

PARALLEL  TEACHINGS 

A.  The  Beatitudes.  We  can  be  brief  here, 
confining  ourselves  to  two  or  three  examples, 
for  the  intimate  relation  of  the  Beatitudes  to 
the  Lord's  Prayer  has  long  been  a  common- 
place of  exegesis. 

When  the  man  who  is  proud  of  his  own 
achievements  enters  the  school  of  Christ, 
he  is  sent  to  the  lowest  child's  class;  he  has 
to  begin  with  the  alphabet:  ''Blessed  are 
the  poor  in  spirit."  A  proud  Christian  is  as 
inconsistent  as  a  square  circle.  Now  the 
bearing  of  this  upon  our  general  subject  is 
plain.  It  is  the  very  nature  of  pride  to  sepa- 
rate; it  is  the  very  nature  of  humility  to 
unite.  It  is  not  true  that  if  all  men  were 
proud,   all  would  stand  together;   for  each 

proud  man  is  a  lonely  iceberg  in  a  desolate 

26 


Parallel  Teachings  27 

sea.  But  it  is  true  that  if  all  were  humble, 
all  would  stand  together.  Each  would  vie 
with  each  in  seeking  his  neighbor's  good;  each 
would  esteem  others  better  than  himself;  and 
all  would  unite  in  giving  glory  to  God;  it 
would  be  the  unity  of  heaven.  Although 
therefore  it  looks  at  first  like  restriction  when 
Jesus  confines  his  new  society  to  the  poor  in 
spirit  (Matt.  5:3;  "the  kingdom  of  heaven  be- 
longs to  them"),  it  is  in  truth  the  fullest  com- 
prehension; for  it  gathers  together  all  men  on 
the  platform  where  God  made  them  to  stand ; 
not  abasing  them,  but  lifting  them  up  to  the 
plane  of  the  seraphim,  who  veil  their  faces  be- 
fore Our  Father.  From  this  viewpoint,  the 
only  obstacle  to  Christian  unity  is  the  pride 
that  contradicts  the  very  essence  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

The  Beatitudes  run  through  the  whole 
gamut  of  the  Christian  virtues,  and  end  on 
this  same  ground-tone  (verse  10:  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  belongs  to  them).  This  is  because 
the  humble,  who  seek  not  their  own,  but  give 
all  the  glory  to  God,  are  identical  with  those 


28       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

who  will  endure  persecution  rather  than  lower 
the  standard  of  righteousness. 

Described  in  other  terms  they  are  the  pure 
in  heart,  and  they  see  God.  The  promise 
here,  though  put  in  the  future  tense,  is  not  re- 
stricted to  future  time ;  it  is  true  here  and  now, 
and  it  is  an  eternal  truth.  To  take  a  parallel 
case:  suppose  it  is  said,  "if  you  are  faithful, 
you  will  please  God" :  that  means  not  only  in 
the  heavenly  hereafter  but  all  the  way  thither. 
So  here:  the  pure  in  heart  always  see  God,  and 
no  one  else  can  see  him,  save  dimly  through  a 
clouded  medium.  As  is  the  earthy,  such  are 
they  also  that  are  earthy;  and  as  is  the  heav- 
enly, such  are  they  also  that  are  heavenly. 
There  is  no  Pharisaic  exclusiveness  in  this,  for 
the  door  to  purity  of  heart  is  open  to  all,  and 
Christ  is  the  way.  While  all  the  children  of 
Our  Father  must  pray,  "forgive  us  our  debts," 
the  inspiring  hope  waves  like  a  banner  before 
all:  "As  we  have  borne  the  image  of  the 
earthy,  we  shall  bear  the  image  of  the  heav- 
enly." 

Our  Lord  Jesus  has  found  and  provided  the 


Parallel  Teachings  29 

sure  way  to  bring  all  humanity  into  one  broth- 
erhood; its  success  he  foretells  in  still  another 
beatitude.  ^'Blessed  are  the  meek:  for  they 
shall  inherit  the  earth."  Among  the  many 
causes  for  astonishment  at  Jesus,  when  he  had 
ended  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  none  was 
more  overwhelming  than  this  promise  to  the 
meek.  The  words,  to  be  sure,  were  in  an  an- 
cient psalm,  but  in  Christ's  time  they  were  not 
taken  seriously  either  by  the  leaders  or  by  the 
common  people.  The  meek  were  every- 
where trodden  down  and  despised.  It  was 
power  and  success  that  were  glorified;  the 
popular  hero  was  the  fierce  zealot  who  would 
break  the  Roman  yoke  by  force.  Only  a 
dreamer  could  have  imagined  that  the  meek 
were  to  conquer  the  earth;  but  this  dreamer 
was  prepared  to  wait;  in  our  day,  to  those  who 
look  below  the  agitated  surface,  the  world  is 
growing  towards  his  dream,  and  that  conquest 
has  become  probable,  even  judging  the  future 
solely  by  the  past.  Longfellow,  in  the  Saga  of 
King  Olaf,  caught  the  vital  issues  of  the  con- 
flict. 


30       TKe  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

"I  am  the  war-god;  I  am  the  thunderer. 
Meekness  is  weakness,  Strength  is  triumphant. 
Thou  art  a  god  too,  O  Galilean ! 
And   thus  single-handed   Unto   the  combat, 
Gauntlet  or  gospel,  Here  I  defy  thee." 

The  answer  to  the  challenge  is  heard  in  the 
voice  of  St.  John,  the  beloved  disciple. 

"It  is  accepted,  The  angry  defiance, 
But  not  with  the  weapons  Of  war  that  thou  wieldest ! 
Peace-cry  for  war-cry!     Patience  is  powerful; 
Stronger  than  steel  Is  the  sword  of  the  Spirit; 
Greater  than  anger  Is  love,  and  subdueth." 

Many  plans  for  Christian  union  have  been 
put  before  the  Christian  public,  only  to  prove 
ineffectual ;  Christ's  own  plan,  on  the  contrary, 
is  thoroughly  feasible;  a  union  in  the  spirit  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Beatitudes.  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  same,  yesterday  and  today  and 
forever;  thus  we  have  the  best  reason  to  ex- 
pect that  all  his  teachings  will  be  found  har- 
monious with  those  already  examined.  This 
expectation  is  justified  when  we  pass  to 

B.  The  Parables.  The  seven  in  the  thir- 
teenth chapter  of  Matthew  are  often  called 
distinctively  the  parables  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.     The  truth  is,  however,  that  the  same 


Parallel  Teachings  31 

name  may  be  fitly  applied  to  the  score  and 
more  found  elsewhere.  It  is  also  true  that 
both  these  and  those  appeal  to  no  special  class 
or  race  or  time;  they  are  as  universal  as  the 
Beatitudes  and  the  Lord's  Prayer. 

Consider  for  a  moment  the  parables  of 
grace,  such  as  the  three  that  form  the  fifteenth 
chapter  of  Luke.  In  the  West  as  naturally 
as  in  the  East  we  sing,  ^'I  was  a  wandering 
sheep."  In  the  twentieth  century  as  in  the 
first,  hearts  are  melted  by  the  love  that  goes 
out  into  the  mountain;  indeed,  the  human 
heart  was  never  made  to  resist  the  persistent 
battery  of  that  yearning,  divine  love.  Unity 
is  lacking  to  the  flock  of  Christ,  if  ninety-nine 
tribes  of  men  are  gathered  into  it  but  one  re- 
mains unreached;  ^'other  sheep  I  have,"  ^'them 
also  I  must  bring,"  ^'there  shall  be  one  flock, 
one  shepherd."  Unity  is  more  palpably  lack- 
ing to  the  diadem  of  Christ  if  nine  races,  like 
silver  coins,  form  a  broken  circlet  about  his 
brow,  broken  because  one  is  lost;  the  diligent 
search  must  go  on  till  the  cry  ascends :  "rejoice 
with  me" — "When  beneath  Messiah's  sway, 


32       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

Every  nation,  every  clime,  Shall  the  gospel 
call  obey." 

What  shall  we  say,  then,  of  the  family  of 
Christ  when  the  ratio  is  one  to  one?  when  a 
full  half  of  humanity  are  still  among  the  husks' 
and  the  swine?  To  chatter  about  ceremonies 
and  vestments,  dogma  and  polity,  instead  of 
heeding  the  summons  of  the  Master:  "Follow 
me,  and  let  the  dead  bury  their  dead";  "Go  ye 
into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature/'  is  to  be  fiddling  while  Rome 
is  burning. 

Turn  from  the  parables  of  grace  to  those  of 
judgment.  On  the  surface,  these  may  seem 
quite  out  of  harmony  with  the  universality  of 
the  gospel.  But  when  we  dig  below  the  sur- 
face, the  all-embracing  love  of  God  shines  in 
them  like  the  gleam  of  gems  in  a  mine.  If 
divine  judgment  has  ever  loomed  up  threaten- 
ingly, it  is  in  the  story  of  the  barren  fig-tree. 
Yet  Jesus  is  the  vine-dresser,  and  the  Jewish 
nation  is  only  one  tree  in  the  great  vineyard, 
which  is  his  kingdom;  and  the  plea  of  the  in- 
tercessor is  effectual  in  warding  off  the  threat- 


Parallel  Teachings  33 

ening  doom.  He  who  bade  us  love  our  ene- 
mies set  us  a  royal  example,  for  the  type  of  the 
vine-dresser  found  its  antitype  in  the  cry  from 
the  cross:  'Tather,  forgive  them."  Let  the 
reader  ask  his  ov^n  heart  if  it  be  not  true,  that 
herein  v^e  have  the  universal  solvent  that  can 
melt  all  humanity  and  blend  it  together  into 
one  brotherhood  that  will  crown  our  Jesus 
lord  of  all.  I  cannot  resist  the  temptation  to 
quote  at  this  point  from  another  of  the  good 
books  which  ought  to  be  better  known,  James 
Stirling's  recent  volume,  Christ's  Vision  of  the 
Kingdom   of  Heaven,       (London,    1913.    p. 

**What  was  the  plain,  literal  message  of  the  vine- 
dresser's Intercession  to  those  who  first  heard  this  parable  ? 
It  was  that  Jesus  Christ  had  prayed  for  the  whole  nation, 
and  that  Its  period  of  probation  had  been  prolonged  in 
answer  to  his  intercession  and  his  work.  The  people 
amongst  whom  Jesus  lived  and  moved  were  ignorant  of 
the  Divine  edict  of  removal;  but  they  were  also  ignorant 
of  the  other  truth  that  he  whom  society  avoided  had 
by  his  prayer  stayed  the  execution  of  the  sentence.  There 
is  pathos  in  the  mother  praying  for  her  sleeping  child; 
there  is  deeper  pathos  in  the  Redeemer's  intercession  be- 
tween a  slumbering  nation  and  the  sentence  of  judgment. 
How  often  may  the  prayer  Xet  It  alone'  have  risen  from 
the  Redeemer's  soul,  on  the  cold  mountain,  In  the  lonely 
night,  or  when  town  and  city  repulsed  his  overtures  of 
love  with  rage  and  scorn!" 


34       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

Yet  more  plain  and  convincing  is  the  lesson 
of  those  parables  which  depict  the  expansion 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  under  such  figures 
as  that  of  the  seed  growing  secretly,  that  of  the 
mustard  seed,  and  that  of  the  leaven.  Confin- 
ing ourselves  to  the  last,  it  is  easy  to  refute 
once  more  that  ancient  perversion  (still  clung 
to  by  a  few)  which  sees  in  the  leaven  the  image 
of  a  corruption  that  is  to  fill  the  church  of 
Christ  until  the  whole  mass  has  become  so  de- 
generate that  the  Lord  himself  will  descend  in 
the  clouds  of  heaven  to  gather  his  elect  out  of 
the  sinking  ship.  Sufiice  it  to  say  negatively, 
that  this  view  can  no  more  be  proved  from  the 
fact  that  leaven  is  elsewhere  an  image  of  sin, 
than  the  lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  in  the 
fifth  chapter  of  Revelation,  can  be  proved 
identical  with  the  roaring  lion  in  the  fifth 
chapter  of  I  Peter;  and  positively,  that  the 
mustard  seed  and  the  leaven  are  manifestly 
twin  parables  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  and 
even  as  the  one  represents  the  marvellous 
growth  of  that  kingdom  as  visible  to  the  out- 
ward eye,  so  the  other  most  naturally  sets  forth 


Parallel  Teachings  35 

the  invisible  power  of  the  kingdom  to  pene- 
trate and  transform  the  whole  mass  of  human- 
ity. It  is  the  leaven,  not  the  meal,  to  which 
Jesus  likens  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  This 
natural  exegesis  is  vindicated  by  the  conquests 
of  Immanuel  in  human  history.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  corn  of  wheat  that  he  planted  has 
brought  forth  abundant  fruit  in  the  hundreds 
of  millions  who  call  him  Lord;  on  the  other, 
the  thoughts  of  the  human  heart,  the  judgments 
of  the  mind,  the  passions  of  the  soul,  the  cus- 
toms of  the  race,  age  by  age  (for  the  swirling 
eddies  of  the  surface  do  not  mark  the  trend 
of  the  age-current)  are  becoming  transmuted 
and  elevated  into  conformity  with  the  mind  of 
Christ,  even  as  leaven  transmutes  and  elevates 
dough.  The  parable  of  the  leaven  is  a  sure 
word  of  prophecy,  fulfilling  itself  in  the  past, 
and  to  be  fulfilled  progressively  till  the  king- 
doms of  this  world  become  the  kingdom  of  our 
Lord  and  of  his  Christ. 

A  passing  reference  is  due  here  to  two  im- 
portant books:  Dr.  Storrs's  Lowell  lectures, 
^The  Divine  Authority  of  Christianity  Indi- 


36       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

cated  by  its  Historical  Effects";  this  shows 
what  has  been;  and  Canon  Fremantle's  Bamp- 
ton  lectures,  *'The  World  as  the  Subject  of  Re- 
demption" ;  this  shows  what  is  and  is  to  be. 

C  Separate  sayings,  A  single  thread  con- 
nects all  these  pearls,  namely,  that  word  of  the 
Samaritan  woman :  '^This  is  indeed  the  Christ, 
the  Saviour  of  the  world." 

(i)  /  must  be  about  my  Father's  business. 
Many  would  say  that  since  we  are  consider- 
ing the  teachings  of  Jesus,  we  should  leave  out 
this  first  recorded  utterance;  for  it  was  spoken 
when  he  was  twelve  years  old,  without  the  least 
intention  of  ''teaching."  But  in  any  case  it  is 
an  admirable  motto  for  all  disciples  to  adopt 
and  follow,  and  it  has  had,  and  will  have,  no 
small  part  in  the  saving  of  the  world.  The 
modern  insistence  on  permeating  business  with 
religion  and  religion  with  business  is  alto- 
gether praiseworthy,  and  it  issues,  like  a 
stream  from  a  fountain,  out  of  this  same  conse- 
cration of  all  to  God,  wherein  Jesus  led  the 
way,  teaching  by  example.  The  word  ''busi- 
ness" is  used  here  in  no  technical  sense ;  indeed, 


Parallel  Teachings  37 

Jesus  did  not  use  it  at  all.  What  he  said  was 
'^the  things  of  my  Father."  It  was  almost  as 
though  he  had  said,  ''I  belong  to  my  Father." 
It  is  strange  that  so  many  people  take  credit 
to  themselves  for  giving  a  tenth  of  their  in- 
come and  a  seventh  of  their  time  to  God's 
business,  not  perceiving  that  the  other  nine- 
tenths  is  borrowed  money,  the  other  six- 
sevenths  borrowed  time.  Even  to  say  with 
Peter, ''See,  we  have  left  all  and  followed  thee ; 
what  shall  we  have  therefore?"  is  equivalent 
to  saying:  ''If  we  have  left  all,  how  much 
have  we  remaining?"  The  only  true  position 
to  take  is  the  frank  acknowledgment  that  not 
one  of  us  has  a  right  to  say  mine  of  any  posses- 
sion. We  may  go  about  some  earthly  busi- 
ness; we  must  be  about  our  Father's  business. 
And  since  he  has  made  us  all  to  differ,  a  mo- 
ment's reflection  shows  that  any  lower  govern- 
ing purpose  in  life  than  Christ's  leads  to  con- 
stant clashing  of  wills,  while  the  pursuit  of 
this  purpose  results  in  a  world  like  the  solar 
system,  with  a  maximum  of  variety  blending 
in  harmonious  unity. 


38       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

(2)  Follow  me  and  I  will  make  you  fishers 
of  men. 

Jesus  said  this  to  his  first  disciples ;  he  says 
it  still  to  all  his  disciples.  When  Andrew  and 
Peter,  James  and  John,  began  to  follow  him, 
the  leaven  began  to  work  in  the  lump;  or, 
which  is  the  same  thing,  the  net  began  to  en- 
close a  multitude  of  fishes.  Even  in  our  own 
day  there  are  as  good  fish  in  the  sea  as  ever 
were  caught,  and  they  will  be  caught,  for 
every  year  the  disciples  are  gathering  them  in 
by  hundreds  of  thousands,  "pure  fish  to  sweet 
life  enticing."  ^  Some  one  explains  why  fish- 
ing rather  than  hunting  has  furnished  us  with 
Christian  emblems  by  remarking  that  the 
hunter  drives  his  game,  the  fisherman  draws 
his  game.  Now  that  our  Lord  is  ascended  on 
high,  it  is  not  by  the  exercise  of  miraculous 
power,  but  through  the  ministry  of  us,  his 
humble  fishermen,  that  he  fulfils  his  great 
promise:  "I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth, 
will  draw  all  men  unto  me."  He  has  found 
the  secret  of  winning  all  the  world  into  union 

1  From  an  early  Christian  hymn. 


Parallel  Teachings  39 

with  one  another,  by  first  drawing  them  into 
union  with  himself. 

(3)  //  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  re- 
ceive. 

This  is  that  word  of  Jesus  which  is  pre- 
served to  us  in  Paul's  address  to  the  Ephesian 
elders;  it  is  significant  that  we  are  bidden  to 
remember  it,  for  it  runs  athwart  the  tendencies 
of  the  natural  man.  The  most  obvious  reason 
why  the  world  of  today  is  out  of  harmony,  is 
that  men  strive  to  get  rather  than  to  give. 
*Trom  whence  come  wars  and  fightings  among 
you?  come  they  not  hence,  even  of  your  lusts?" 
It  is  a  childish  notion,  that  if  people  could 
inhabit  a  beautiful  place  called  heaven,  and 
have  their  every  desire  gratified,  they  would 
be  perfectly  happy.  Jesus  knew  human  na- 
ture better.  It  is  true,  we  sometimes  use  the 
word  happiness  to  denote  these  pleasures  of  a 
lower  order  that  flow  in  upon  us,  but  in  that 
case  we  must  keep  clear  the  distinction  be- 
tween happiness  and  joy  which  Dr.  Bushnell 
made  so  plain.  Joy  is  a  synonym  for  the  bless- 
edness of  which  Christ  here  speaks;  it  is  the 


40       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

wellspring  that  constantly  overflows  in  giving, 
and  by  that  very  act  refreshes  the  giver's  heart. 
What  w^ould  happen  if  we  were  all  givers ;  not 
by  impulse  but  by  deliberate  plan?  Why,  we 
should  give  the  best  we  have;  the  knowledge 
of  salvation  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
We  should  be  eager  to  bestow  freely  the  pearl 
of  great  price  which  we  have  so  freely  re- 
ceived. If  A  would  not  take  it  from  B,  he 
might  from  C;  thus,  by  and  by,  the  earth 
would  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  as 
the  waters  cover  the  sea,  and  the  hearts  of  all 
would  beat  in  unison  with  the  heart  of  Christ. 

(4)    Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself. 

The  Jews  have  always  been  wont  to  recite 
as  the  fundamental  precept  of  their  law  that 
passage  in  Deuteronomy  which  is  called  the 
Shema  from  its  opening  word:  ^^Hear  (He- 
brew, shema),  O  Israel;  the  Lord  thy  God  is 
one  Lord;  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,"  etc.  But  it  required 
an  insight  of  genius  that  could  pierce  through 
a  multitude  of  ceremonial  precepts  to  their 
kernel,  and  it  required  the  boldness  of  him 


Parallel  Teachings  41 

who  taught  with  authority,  to  place  beside  that 
sacred  Shema  as  its  co-equal  and  fellow  this 
law  of  love  to  the  neighbor.  "And  who  is  my 
neighbor?''  asked  a  certain  lawyer,  wishing  to 
justify  himself,  that  is,  to  justify  his  exclusive- 
ness.  Now  the  point  of  Christ's  answer,  in  the 
story  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  is  that  according 
to  custom,  which  is  stronger  than  law,  the  Jews 
of  that  day  were  having  no  dealings  with  the 
Samaritans.  Christ  turns  the  lawyer's  ques- 
tion end  for  end,  bidding  him  ask  rather:  "to 
whom  can  I  be  neighbor?"  teaching  him  to 
bind  up  the  wounds  of  his  bitterest  foes,  and 
thus  interpret  love  in  terms  of  life. 

Our  age  applauds  the  coupling  together  of 
these  two  great  commandments;  and  better 
still,  it  has  caught  from  the  Lord  Jesus  the  en- 
thusiasm of  humanity.  That  spirit  will  con- 
quer— is  conquering — the  world,  and  just  so 
fast  and  so  far  as  it  prevails,  the  world  becomes 
one;  there  is  neither  Greek  nor  Jew,  circum- 
cision nor  uncircumcision.  Barbarian,  Scyth- 
ian, bond  nor  free;  but  Christ  is  all  and  in  all. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  UNDERLYING  HARMONY  OF  CHRIST'S 
TEACHINGS 

Still  another  of  the  good  books  which  deserve 
to  be  more  widely  read  is  The  Prophets  and 
the  Promise}  Not  ''promises,"  for  Professor 
Beecher  shows  that  one  great  promise  runs 
through  the  entire  divine  revelation.  The 
content  of  that  promise  is  the  proclamation  of 
God's  kingdom,  culminating  in  Jesus  Christ, 
its  anointed  king.  At  Emmaus,  our  Lord 
began  from  Moses  and  all  the  prophets,  and 
interpreted  to  the  disciples  in  all  the  Scrip- 
tures the  things  concerning  himself.  The 
original  promise  to  Abraham,  that  his  seed 
should  bring  blessing  to  all  nations,  is  in  con- 
stant development  throughout  the  Old  Testa- 
ment.    The  seed  of  that  promise  reaches  its 

1  By  the  late  Willis  J.  Beecher.  It  is,  for  substance,  the 
Stone  lectures  given  at  Princeton  Seminary  in  1902-3  and  pub- 
lished in  New  York  in  1905. 

42 


The  Harmony  of  Christ's  Teachings     43 

perfect  flower  in  the  life,  death,  and  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ.  As  all  previous  history 
looked  forward  to  this  king  of  the  world,  so 
the  growth  of  his  kingdom  rules  all  subsequent 
history.  As  in  the  old  dispensation,  so  in  the 
new,  the  sins  of  men  are  ever  thwarting  and 
deferring  the  consummation  of  God's  king- 
dom, but  the  one  eternal  promise  shines 
through  all,  like  the  bow  in  the  cloud.  It  can- 
not be  shaken;  it  abides  forever.  As  Paul 
puts  it  in  his  letter  to  the  Ephesians,  God  has 
made  known  to  us  the  mystery  of  his  will,  ac- 
cording to  the  good  pleasure  which  he  pur- 
posed in  his  Son,  unto  a  dispensation  of  the 
fulness  of  the  times,  to  sum  up  all  things  in 
Christ,  the  things  in  the  heavens  and  the  things 
upon  the  earth. 

There  we  read  the  meaning  of  Christian 
unity,  expressed  most  tersely  yet  most  pro- 
foundly. In  Christ  it  centres ;  from  Christ  it 
radiates;  all  who  are  in  Christ  are  in  Christian 
unity. 

Reverting  for  a  moment  to  the  cardinal  pre- 
cept, let  us  listen  to  one  whom  all  schools  like 


44       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

to    quote     (Godet's    commentary    on    John 
17:21): 

''The  question  is  not  only,  as  is  often  supposed,  of  the 
union  of  Christians  among  themselves,  but  above  all,  of 
the  union  w^hich  is  the  basis  of  this,  that  of  the  body  of 
believers  with  Christ,  and  through  him  w^ith  God  him- 
self. This  sublime  unity  it  is,  v^hich  Jesus  in  w^hat  fol- 
lows contrasts  with  that  of  the  world.  'That  they  also 
may  be  (one?)  in  us.'  The  idea  .  .  .  does  not  impera- 
tively require  this  word  (one).  It  is  by  being  in  Christ, 
and  through  him  in  God  {'in  us'),  that  believers  find 
themselves  living  in  each  other.  That  which  separates 
them  is  what  they  have  of  self  in  their  views  and  will; 
that  which  unites  them  is  what  they  have  of  Christ,  and 
thereby  of  the  divine,  in  them.  It  is  clear  that  this  dwell- 
ing of  Christ,  and  therefore  of  God,  in  them,  is  the  work 
of  the  Spirit,  who  alone  has  the  power  to  cast  down  the 
barriers  between  personalities  without  confounding  them.'* 

We  have  been  considering  the  teachings  of 
Christ  by  selected  samples;  cutting  them  off 
perpendicularly,  so  to  speak,  and  noting  the 
identity  of  their  structure,  whether  in  the 
prayer  which  the  Lord  himself  prayed,  or  in 
the  prayer  which  he  taught  to  us,  or  in  the 
Beatitudes,  or  in  the  parables,  or  in  certain 
isolated  sayings;  each  and  all  set  before  us  the 
great  ideal,  that  even  as  our  Master  is  one  in 
the  Father,  so  all  the  world  is  to  be  one  in 
him,  according  to  the  promise  given  to  the 


The  Harmony  of  Christ's  Teachings     45 

father  of  the  faithful.  Our  thought  will  now 
take  a  horizontal  direction,  and  pass  through 
the  main  body  of  Christ's  teaching  in  Mat- 
thew, following  the  clue  just  gained,  the  idea 
of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

In  4:  17  we  read  that  Jesus  began  to  preach 
— that  is,  to  announce  as  a  herald — :  "the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  at  hand."  Now  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  precisely  the  kingdom  of 
God,  whose  promise  had  illuminated  the  ages 
from  Abraham  down.  If  one  takes  the  slight 
trouble  to  look  up,  in  a  concordance,  the  refer- 
ences in  the  New  Testament  to  "the  kingdom 
of  heaven"  and  "the  kingdom  of  God,"  he  can- 
not fail  to  perceive  that  these  two  are  one. 
Humanity,  lost  by  sin,  redeemed  by  Christ, 
constitutes  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  or  of  God. 
This  kingdom  is  the  subject  of  the  next  three 
chapters  of  Matthew,  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  which  includes  the  Beatitudes  and  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  already  examined.  The  iden- 
tity of  the  kingdom  with  the  promise  that 
pervades  the  Old  Testament  is  established 
by  5:  17-19,  and  the  main  theme  of  the  ser- 


46       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

mon  is  announced  in  5:20:  *^Except  your 
righteousness  shall  exceed  the  righteousness 
of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  ye  shall  in  no 
wise  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
Jesus  had  to  tear  down  the  old  house  to  replace 
it  with  the  new;  or,  to  use  his  own  figure,  the 
new  wine  would  burst  the  old  wine-skins. 
The  kingdom  of  formal  ceremonies  and 
whited  sepulchres  must  yield  to  the  kingdom 
of  truth  and  love.  Hence  the  contrasts  that 
follow  in  chapter  5 :  '^it  hath  been  said,"  '^but  I 
say" — culminating  in  verses  43-48,  which  set 
God's  all-embracing  love  over  against  Phari- 
saic exclusiveness.  Hence  the  contrasts  in 
chapter  6,  between  hypocritical  alms,  prayers, 
fastings,  and  the  inner  life  of  the  spirit,  that 
seeks  first  God's  kingdom  (verse  ^3,)  ^i^d  trusts 
in  him  for  all  things  needful.  Hence,  in 
chapter  7,  the  golden  rule,  and  the  final  con- 
trasts between  the  broad  and  narrow  ways,  the 
good  and  corrupt  trees,  the  builders  on  the 
sand  and  on  the  rock.  It  is  plain  that  the  ap- 
parent harshness  of  these  contrasts  is  only  the 
beneficent  surgery  of  the  great  physician,  who 


The  Harmony  of  Chrisfs  Teachings     47 

is  trying  to  save  the  scribes  and  Pharisees 
themselves  as  well  as  their  victims;  for  he  is 
revealing  the  Father,  who  maketh  his  sun  to 
rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  sendeth 
rain  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust.  Three 
well-known  little  books  by  J.  Oswald  Dykes  ^ 
give  an  excellent  resume  of  the  teaching  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  kingdom. 

Matthew  8  and  9  record  chiefly  a  group 
of  miracles,  but  these  make  an  opening  for 
*'the  good  news  of  the  kingdom"  (9:35), 
which  is  preached  to  all,  with  compassion  for 
all.  We  in  this  missionary  age  have  learned 
to  interpret  9:37,  38  by  that  other  word  of 
Christ,  ''the  field  is  the  world."  Matthew  10 
gives  Christ's  instructions  to  his  first  messen- 
gers, as  they  began  the  work  which  we  con- 
tinue, the  work  of  going  into  all  the  world,  and 
preaching  the  gospel  to  every  creature. 
Freely  they  had  received  it,  freely  they  were 

2  The  Beatitudes  of  the  Kingdom.     (New  York,  1872.) 
The  Laws  of  the  Kingdom.     (New  York,  1873.) 
The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom  to  the  World.     (New  York, 
1874.) 


48       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

to  give  it  (verse  8),  making  proclamation  like 
their  Master:  ^'the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at 
hand"  (verse  7). 

A  dozen  bare  statements  of  the  universality 
of  this  gospel  would  not  impress  our  hearts 
like  the  touching  w^ords  in  verse  29 :  "Are  not 
two  sparrows  sold  for  a  farthing?  and  one  of 
them  shall  not  fall  on  the  ground  without  your 
Father."  The  exception  made  of  the  Samari- 
tans (verse  5)  was  simply  in  order  to  save 
them;  these  prejudiced  disciples  would  only 
have  repelled  them.  Jesus  himself  won  a 
whole  city-full  of  them,  and  so  did  the  apostles 
after  Pentecost. 

In  chapter  eleven,  the  scales  fall  from  the 
eyes  of  John  the  Baptist,  and  the  blessed  "who- 
soever" sent  to  him  (verse  5)  chimes  well  with 
the  invitation  to  all  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
laden,  which  closes  the  chapter.  All  Chris- 
tian history  proves  that  they  who  heed  Christ's 
"Come  unto  me"  come  to  each  other  thereby. 

Chapter  twelve  begins  by  translating  into 
practical  life  the  contrasts  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  and  ends  with  another  gracious 


The  Harmony  of  Christ's   Teachings     49 

"whosoever,"  which  gives  one  of  the  clearest 
expressions  of  the  universality  of  the  kingdom : 
"whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of  my  Father 
who  is  in  heaven,  the  same  is  my  brother  and 
sister  and  mother." 

Chapter  thirteen  brings  us  back  to  the  seven 
parables,  of  which  we  took  that  of  the  leaven 
as  a  sample.  That  the  eye  of  Christ  swept 
over  all  classes  and  conditions  of  all  men  in 
all  time  is  manifest  w^hen  we  reflect  that  the 
truths  of  geometry  are  no  more  general  in  their 
application  than  the  truths  of  this  chapter. 
The  people  who  are  typified  here  are  our 
neighbors;  wx  meet  them  every  day.  The 
quiet  assurance  with  which  the  Son  of  Man 
shows  himself  as  revealer  of  the  Father's  work 
in  all  creation  has  in  these  parables  but  one  out 
of  many  illustrations.  For  as  Trench  said  so 
well :  ^  "The  world  of  nature  is  throughout 
a  witness  for  the  world  of  spirit,  proceeding 
from  the  same  hand,  growing  out  of  the  same 
root,  and  being  constituted  for  that  very  end; 
and  the  question  suggested  by  the  angel  in 

3  Notes  on  the  Parables,  p.  13.     (New  York,  1872.) 


50       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

Milton    is    often    forced    upon    our    medita- 
tions:— 

'What  if  earth 
Be  but  the  shadow  af  heaven,  and  things  therein 
Each  to  other  like,  more  than  on  earth  is  thought?'  " 

Chapter  fifteen  affords  a  signal  instance  of 
the  universality  of  the  gospel  by  the  story  of 
the  woman  of  Canaan,  whose  faith  ''wrung  a 
yea  from  Christ's  seeming  nay,"  and  occa- 
sioned a  notable  lesson  in  the  training  of  the 
twelve.  In  chapter  sixteen,  the  keys  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  are  given  to  a  humble  fish- 
erman, and  by  inference  to  every  faithful  con- 
fessor. We  read  just  afterward,  ''whosoever 
shall  lose  his  life  for  my  sake  shall  find  it,"  that 
is,  shall  find  eternal  life  in  the  kingdom  of 
God.  The  next  group  of  sayings  is  in  chap- 
ters eighteen  and  nineteen,  which  throw  back 
light  on  Christ's  answer  to  Peter's  confession. 
The  humble  spirit,  that  of  a  child,  is  the  key 
to  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Not  all  men  can 
be  great,  but  all  can  be  lowly,  and  all  are  in- 
vited, with  another  whosoever,  18:4.  The 
lost  sheep  meets  us  here  again,  and  the  Father 


The  Harmony  of  Chrisfs  Teachings     51 

wills  not  that  any  should  perish  (18:14). 
The  Lord  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  present 
in  any  two  or  three  (verse  20)  who  meet  any- 
where on  earth  in  the  name  of  Jesus.  The  les- 
son of  universal  forgiveness  which  we  found  in 
the  Lord's  Prayer  is  expanded  into  a  parable 
(verses  21-35) .  In  19 :  14  Jesus  calls  to  him- 
self all  little  children;  ^^for  to  such  belongeth 
the  kingdom  of  heaven"  (Am.  R.V.) .  Such  a 
childlike  spirit  comes  hard  to  the  rich 
(19:  23),  but  they  are  not  excluded,  for  with 
God  all  things  are  possible  (verse  26). 

In  chapter  twenty,  every  man  in  the  market- 
place is  hired,  and  the  welcome  is  as  hearty  to 
the  Gentile,  who  comes  late,  as  to  the  Jew, 
who  comes  early.  The  same  grace  to  the 
despised  and  rejected  appears  more  emphat- 
ically in  chapter  21:31,  43.  So  in  22:10 
the  invitation  to  the  feast,  which  is  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  (verse  2),  gathers  all  in  the 
highways,  both  bad  and  good.  Chapter  23, 
verse  8,  is  the  gospel  in  a  nut-shell:  ^^One 
is  your  Master,  even  Christ;  and  all  ye  are 
brethren."     Christ  has  to  clear  away  obstacles 


52       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

in  order  to  build;  therefore  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees  are  terribly  denounced  in  this 
23d  chapter,  not  as  men  but  as  obstructers 
(verse  14)  :  they  shut  up  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  against  men.  This  attitude  of  theirs 
however  is  not  to  continue  forever;  the  heart 
of  Jesus  yearns  over  them  (verse  37)  and  he 
foretells  their  conversion  (verse  39) .  Bunyan 
drew  the  right  inference  in  "The  Jerusalem 
sinner  saved." 

Chapter  twenty-four  looks  on  to  the  final 
stage  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven;  it  contrasts 
the  rise  and  fall  of  nations  (verse  7)  with 
the  good  news  of  the  kingdom,  which  is 
for  the  whole  world  (verse  14).  Compare 
26:13:  "wheresoever  this  gospel  shall  be 
preached  in  the  whole  world."  Chapter 
twenty-five  gathers  all  the  nations  before  the 
Son  of  Man  (verse  32)  and  shows  how  to 
unite  them  all  in  him  (verse  40).  The  con- 
demnation that  follows  may  be  not  so  much 
an  infallible  prediction  of  a  hopeless  future, 
as  a  timely  warning,  in  well-known  apocalyp- 
tic pictures,  against  neglect  of  the  only  name 


The  Harmony  of  Christ's   Teachings     53 

under  heaven  given  among  men  w^hereby  we 
must  be  saved. 

The  great  teachings  recorded  in  Matthew 
end  with  the  commission  (28:18-20)  from 
the  Son  of  God,  who  has  all  authority  in 
heaven  and  on  earth,  and  who  bids  his  follow- 
ers go  and  make  disciples  everywhere,  relying 
on  his  presence  over  all  space  and  through  all 
time.  In  that  promise  is  the  firm  base  and 
the  sure  hope  of  a  Christian  unity  that  is  to 
embrace  the  whole  world  and  transform  the 
ruins  of  the  fall  into  the  city  of  the  living  God. 

The  brief  gospel  by  Mark  consists  of  action 
rather  than  teaching;  nearly  all  the  teaching 
occurs  also  in  Matthew;  an  exception  is  the 
beautiful  little  parable  of  the  seed  growing 
secretly  (4:  26-29).  Its  lesson  is  plain  and  is 
constantly  verified  throughout  the  ages: — 
though  it  be  a  Paul  that  plants,  or  an  Apollos 
that  waters,  it  is  God  alone  that  gives  the  in- 
crease; therefore  let  us  rest  in  the  Lord,  and 
wait  patiently  for  him,  and  fret  not  ourselves 
because  of  evil-doers.  ''So  is  the  kingdom  of 
God." 


54       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

The  gospel  by  Luke  is  the  gospel  of  human- 
ity. Its  catholic  tone  lies  upon  the  surface, 
and  is  brought  into  clear  light  by  all  exposi- 
tors. The  parables  of  grace  in  chapter  fifteen, 
of  the  vine-dresser  in  chapter  thirteen,  of  the 
good  Samaritan  in  chapter  ten,  we  have  al- 
ready examined;  but  the  other  parables  also 
have  the  same  wide  scope,  which  is  some- 
times expressed  plainly,  as  in  i8:  14;  14:  11: 
"every  one  that  exalteth  himself  shall  be  hum- 
bled; but  he  that  humbleth  himself  shall  be 
exalted." 

A  book  by  James  Stirling,  already  referred 
to,  makes  it  evident  that  each  one  of  the  para- 
bles belongs  to  the  teaching  of  our  Lord  con- 
cerning God's  kingdom.^ 

It  is  often  asserted  that  the  gospel  by  John 
has  almost  nothing  to  say  about  the  kingdom 
of  heaven ;  but  if  this  particular  phrase  is  lack- 
ing, the  idea  certainly  is  not.  We  must  not 
tie  down  the  meaning  of  a  great  thought  to  a 
single  form  of  expression.  Besides  the  fun- 
damental word  to  Nicodemus :     Except  a  man 

4  Christ's  Vision  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.     (London,  1913.) 


The  Harmony  of  Christ's  Teachings     55 

(i.  e.,  any  man)  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see 
the  kingdom  of  God,  we  have  the  term  ''all 
men,"  as  in  i :  7 — ''that  all  men  through  him 
might  believe,"  which  is  exactly  what  we  have 
found  to  be  the  goal  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

Another  expression,  and  a  characteristic  one, 
is  "the  world,"  for  with  John  the  message  of 
salvation  is  as  broad  as  the  human  race.  God 
so  loved  the  world  (3:  16)  that  he  gave  his 
only  begotten  Son;  (3:17)  "that  the  world 
should  be  saved  through  him."  So  in  4:41 
— "this  is  indeed  the  Saviour  of  the  world;" 
and  in  6:  33 — "the  bread  of  God  is  he  which 
Cometh  down  from  heaven  and  giveth  life  unto 
the  world." 

A  similar  thought,  with  a  varied  expression, 
meets  us  in  7:  17.  "If  any  man  willeth  to 
do  his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  teaching"; 
that  is  a  platform  broad  enough  for  all  the 
world  to  stand  on  and  find  themselves  in 
Christian  unity.  Chapter  8,  verse  36,  pre- 
sents the  same  truth  from  still  another  angle: 
"If  the  Son  therefore  shall  make  you  free, 
ye   shall   be    free    indeed."     Note    also    that 


56       The  Meant  Jig  of  Christian   Unity 

tender  phrase  in  10:  16,  "other  sheep  I  have," 
etc.,  which  reveals  the  purpose  of  Christ,  the 
path  he  means  to  tread,  so  long  as  one  sheep 
is  straying  from  the  fold. 

And  now  we  reach  the  point  from  which 
we  started;  the  great  central  teaching  of 
chapters  thirteen  to  seventeen.  The  Holy 
Spirit  is  to  take  up  and  carry  on  the  work  of 
Christ,  convicting  '^the  world"  (16:  8).  The 
mutual  love  enjoined  by  the  new  command- 
ment is  to  be  a  badge  of  discipleship  that  "all 
men"  will  recognize  (13:  35). 

The  more  this  law  of  love  is  studied,  the 
more  evident  it  becomes  that  God,  who  is 
love,  has  made  all  men  in  his  image  (however 
sin  has  obscured  it),  and  that  love  is  the  great 
magnet  which  alone  can  draw  men  back  to 
God  and  to  one  another,  resolving  most  re- 
fractory substances,  melting  stony  hearts.  All 
true  religion  is  founded  on  love;  all  forms  of 
duty  are  summed  up  in  love,  which  is  the  ful- 
filling of  the  law.  Mark  Hopkins's  text-book 
of  ethics  ^  has  been  tested  for  several  decades 

^  The  Law  of  Love  and  Love  as  a  Law.     New  York,  1869. 


The  Harmony  of  Chris fs  Teachings     57 

by  thousands  of  college  men  and  a  great  mul- 
titude of  other  thoughtful  people.  Few  who 
know  it  would  be  disposed  to  deny  that  it  sets 
forth  the  mind  of  Christ. 

We  may  summarize  the  main  teachings  of 
Jesus  in  a  few  sentences.  Every  man,  as  the 
child  of  our  Father,  is  salvable.  The  Son  of 
God,  who  is  the  perfect  expression  of  the 
Father's  will,  is  seeking  to  save  every  man. 
The  Holy  Spirit's  working  in  the  followers  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  exactly  what  is  meant  by  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  also  by  Christian  unity; 
these  two  agree  in  one.  This  unity  is  the  pres- 
ent possession  of  all  Christians,  and  the  poten- 
tial possession  of  all  men.  Organizations  of 
Christians,  whether  local,  national,  or  world- 
wide, we  have  not  found  alluded  to  in  the 
main  teachings  of  Jesus;  they  neither  add  to 
nor  subtract  from  Christian  unity,  which  is  a 
fruit  of  the  Spirit  alone.  How  many  and 
what  organizations  Christians  will  naturally 
develop  is  a  question  of  practise,  not  of  doc- 
trine. 

Christian  unity  is  a  thing  of  degrees,  vary- 


^8       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

ing  from  what  chemists  call  a  trace  up  to  the 
fullness  of  godly  concord.  It  prevails  more  at 
any  time  and  in  any  place,  or  it  prevails  less, 
just  in  proportion  as  Christians  are  with  more 
or  less  singleness  of  heart  working  together 
with  God.  Whether  each  individual  soul 
that  ever  lived  on  earth  will  finally  work  to- 
gether with  God,  is  a  speculative  question,  out- 
side the  main  teaching  of  Jesus.  But  the 
cheering  truth  belongs  to  this  teaching,  that 
on  the  great  whole.  Christian  unity  is  to  pre- 
vail increasingly  until  the  will  of  God  is  done 
in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

Here  ends  the  first  part  of  our  discussion, 
which  simply  expands  the  first  sentence  of  the 
Introduction.  The  second  part  of  the  road 
we  are  to  travel  is  longer  and  much  more  diffi- 
cult; but  it  simply  expands  the  second  sentence 
of  the  Introduction. 


PART  II 
OUR  CONSEQUENT  DUTIES 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  TRUE  POINT  OF  VIEW 

If  some  reader,  who  is  curious  only  about 
practical  results,  ignores  the  first  part  of  this 
book,  and  glances  through  the  following  chap- 
ters, he  will  be  properly  disappointed;  what- 
ever force  they  possess  rests  on  the  foundation 
already  laid.  That  foundation  is  either  true 
or  untrue,  rock  or  sand ;  if  the  latter,  the  whole 
structure  goes  by  the  board,  as  it  should.  In 
this  respect,  a  lecturer  has  the  advantage  of 
an  author;  the  audience  cannot  look  ahead,  so 
as  to  pick  and  choose  among  his  teachings. 
But  on  the  other  hand,  this  advantage  belongs 
to  an  author,  that  he  is  secure  from  interrup- 
tions. If  the  first  part  of  this  book  had  been 
read  in  a  social  gathering,  accustomed  to  a 
free  give  and  take,  it  would  have  been  greeted 
with  many  expressions  of  astonishment,  impa- 
tience, or  scornful  contempt. 

"Do  you  not  know  that  you  are  building  castles  in  the 
air?  What  we  wane  is  something  practical.  You  might 
as  well  tell  people  'be  good  and  you  will  be  happy'  as  'love 
everybody.'  " 

6i 


62       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

*'Do  you  not  know  that  you  are  hopelessly  behind  the 
times?  Have  you  not  so  much  as  heard  of  the  current 
movements  for  federation  and  organic  unity  among  the 
churches?" 

**Are  you  aware  that  there  Is  such  a  science  as  biblical 
criticism?     No  one  would  guess  it  from  your  citations." 

"Do  you  not  know  that  leading  biblical  scholars  put 
the  emphasis  of  Christ's  teaching  on  the  apocalyptic  side, 
which  you  have  neglected?" 

"That  which  you  call  central  is  drawn  from  the  fourth 
gospel,  which  receht  authorities  reject  as  over  against  the 
Synoptists?" 

"That  the  Christian  religion  Is  only  one  out  of  many 
ethnic  faiths  that  are  treated  of  In  the  science  of  Compara- 
tive Religion?" 

"That  the  claims  of  Christianity  to  universal  acceptance 
are  flatly  contradicted  by  the  great  war  among  Christian 
nations?" 

"That  your  assumed  goal,  the  unity  of  the  race,  de- 
pends on  the  progress  of  humanity  as  a  whole,  not  on  the 
exegesis  of  texts?" 

To  all  which  it  would  be  pertinent  (and 
perhaps  impertinent?) ,  to  answer  with  Elisha : 
''Yea,  I  know  it;  hold  ye  your  peace."  The 
objections  are  plausible,  and  the  questions 
they  raise  are  fair  ones  which  will  receive  at- 
tention as  we  proceed.  But  the  direction  in 
which  we  are  to  proceed  may  as  well  be  indi- 
cated frankly  at  the  outset.  The  point  of  view 
occupied  by  some  advocates  of  church  unity 
fixes  our  gaze  upon  certain  breaches  and  rents 


The  True  Point  of  View  63 

in  the  ecclesiastical  body.  Eloquent  things 
are  said  about  these  lamentable  gaps  and 
bleeding  wounds,  inflicted  by  the  sin  of  schism. 
Naturally,  with  such  a  diagnosis,  the  rem- 
edy prescribed  by  those  surgeons  consists 
of  plasters;  when  the  wounds  are  drawn 
together,  the  bleeding  will  cease,  and  with 
careful  nursing  the  patient  will  recover. 
There  are  other  advocates  of  unity  who  see 
the  superficial  nature  of  this  reasoning.  If 
A  is  conscientiously  opposed  to  B,  in  doctrine 
or  practise,  he  will  tolerate  him  none  the 
more  when  A's  church  and  B's  church  are 
externally  clamped  together.  Make  the  basis 
of  union  whatsoever  you  please,  and  try  it, 
during  the  next  decade,  on  the  churches  of 
Irish  Orangemen  and  Irish  Romanists!  We 
need  not  cross  the  Atlantic,  either,  to  find  as 
invincible  race  prejudices  and  class  prejudices, 
in  the  face  of  which  a  declaration  of  church 
unity  would  be  the  hollowest  mockery. 
Hence  this  second  class  of  physicians  would 
prescribe  an  internal  remedy,  a  dose  of  ecclesi- 
astical self-denial.     ^'Let  us  emphasize,"  they 


64       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

say,  ^'the  things  wherein  we  agree;  they  are  far 
more  important  than  our  differences.  Let  us 
summon  a  world  conference  of  all  kinds  of 
churches,  and  in  friendly  companionship, 
each  ready  to  surrender  unessential  points,  let 
us  work  out  a  basis  of  reunion,  acceptable  to 
all." 

As  to  this  project,  there  is  a  danger  not  to 
be  overlooked.  Since  the  gathering  must  be  a 
representative  one,  and  not  so  large  as  to  for- 
bid deliberation,  the  same  thing  is  likely  to 
happen  that  has  happened  so  often  both  in  po- 
litical and  in  religious  conventions.  Measures 
are  adopted,  in  the  enthusiasm  of  an  as- 
sembly, that  are  received  but  coldly  by  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  bodies  represented. 
A  recent  instance  in  point  was  the  attempt 
to  unite  three  denominations  of  American 
Christians,  at  Nashville,  in  1906.  The  union 
had  been  discussed  for  years,  and  it  was 
thought  next  to  impossible  to  agree  on  a 
doctrinal  basis,  but  when  such  a  basis  was 
presented,  it  was  instantly  and  unanimously 
adopted  by  the  delegates.     Every  one  said  and 


The  True  Point  of  View  65 

believed:  'This  is  the  Lord's  doing  and  it  is 
marvelous  in  our  eyes."  Yet  all  that  pains- 
taking work  w^as  repudiated,  and  those  bodies 
have  never  come  together  to  this  day. 

There  are  other  physicians  who  differ  from 
those  just  mentioned  as  radically  as  allopath 
from  homeopath.  They  too  would  summon  a 
world  conference  to  unite  all  the  churches,  but 
on  another  basis.  ''If  you  are  going  to  reduce 
these  churches  to  their  lowest  terms,"  they  say, 
"in  order  to  find  a  common  denominator,  you 
will  emasculate  all  that  is  characteristic  and 
significant  in  each.  Every  one  of  them  has 
contributed  something  to  Christendom,  and 
has  something  valuable  to  contribute  to  the 
Church  Catholic.  We  all  should  recognize 
each  as  belonging  to  the  body  of  Christ.  Let 
our  watchword  be  addition,  not  subtraction; 
a  rich  comprehensiveness,  not  a  pale  decoc- 
tion." See,  for  instance,  a  pamphlet  just 
issued:  "The  Object  and  Method  of  the 
World  Conference"  (Gardiner,  Me.,  1915). 
Such  a  gathering  seems  to  be  a  step  in  the 
right  direction,  though  not  the  most  important 


66       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

step  to  be  taken,  a  step  also  which  belongs  to 
the  future,  and  is  by  no  means  to  be  hastened. 
This  last  point  is  made  prominent  by  the  chief 
advocates  of  the  conference.  A  vast  deal  of 
preliminary  work  is  necessary,  and  is  being 
attempted;  no  such  ecumenical  assembly 
should  be  looked  for,  they  think,  for  years  to 
come.  And  this  plan,  like  the  other,  conceals 
a  subtle  danger.  What  if  some  of  these  rich 
additions  shall  prove  to  have  come  from  with- 
out the  fold  of  Christ,  instead  of  from  within? 
What  if  they  are  even  contrary  to  his  mind  and 
will?  With  a  great  sum  obtained  we  our  de- 
liverance from  ecclesiastical  tyranny.  "For 
freedom  did  Christ  set  us  free;  stand  fast, 
therefore,  and  be  not  entangled  again  in  a  yoke 
of  bondage."  While  it  is  false  humility  for 
the  foot  to  say  "Because  I  am  not  the  hand  I 
am  not  of  the  body,"  it  is  insolent  arrogance 
for  any  member  to  say  to  any  other,  "I  am  thy 
head."  This  matter  will  be  examined  more 
fully  in  the  chapter  entitled,  "The  Catholic 
Church." 
I  believe  there  is  a  fundamental  error  in  all 


The  True  Point  of  View  67 

these  remedies.  They  lay  the  chief  stress 
upon  visible  union  between  existing  bodies, 
whereas  the  thing  to  emphasize  is  an  invisible 
thing,  not  union  but  unity.  Bishop  Rhine- 
lander  of  Philadelphia  has  put  this  so  well  (in 
the  Holy  Cross  Magazine,  April,  191 1),  that 
I  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote  some  sentences 
from  his  presentation  of  the  subject. 

''Union  for  the  strength  that  Is  in  it ;  unity  for  the  life 
it  gives;  these  are  two  very  common  and  perfectly  fa- 
miliar 'social  motives.'  And  they  are  different  motives. 
Friendship  is  a  different  thing  from  partnership.  Friends 
are  naturally  partners  and  often  partners  are  friends.  But 
still  the  two  words  stand  for  two  distinct  relationships. 
Friendship  means  sharing  all  chief  things  in  life  for  the 
sole  joy  of  sharing.  The  sharing  of  life  and  its  posses- 
sions is  not  a  side  issue,  but  the  very  heart  of  friendship. 
Unity  is  its  end  and  aim.  Unity  really  exhausts  its  mean- 
ing. Partnership,  on  the  other  hand,  means  not  cor- 
porate life  but  common  work.  It  means  co-operation 
with  other  people  for  the  sake  of  getting  something  done 
in  a  speedy,  gainful,  or  effective  way.  Partnership  exists 
because  there  is  strength  in  union. 

''In  our  religious  life,  we  are  seeking  either  for  union 
or  for  unity,  all  our  various  or  varying  Christian  social 
institutions  being  witness.  Christians,  on  the  one  hand, 
combine  for  the  strength  that  comes  from  union.  There 
are  services  to  be  maintained;  there  are  obligations  to  be 
met;  there  are  good  works  to  be  done;  there  are  pro- 
grammes or  creeds  to  be  upheld.  None  of  these  things 
can  be  done  adequately,  unless  an  adequate  number  of 
people  unite  to  do  them.     So  'congregations'  or  'societies' 


68       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

or  'churches'  are  formed,  that  these  desirable  results 
may  be  achieved  by  the  strength  that  comes  through 
union. 

"On  the  other  hand,  Christians  are  drawn,  or  grow, 
together  simply  as  Christians.  Whether  in  the  family, 
or  in  the  congregation,  or  on  the  mission  field,  their  re- 
ligion means  a  corporate  life  rather  than  a  co-operative 
work.  Such  Christians  may  in  their  turn  'co-operate  in 
Missions'  and  spend  all  their  united  strength  to  'evan- 
gelize the  world,'  but  always,  and  in  everything,  it  is 
fellowship,  or  unity,  they  seek;  more  fellowship  and  more 
unity  because  they  are  bound  to  be  dissatisfied  till  all  the 
race  is  one." 

My  own  point  of  view,  while  in  harmony 
with  that  just  cited,  would  make  it  more  defi- 
nite in  two  particulars.  First,  Christian  unity 
is  a  present  fact,  actual  in  all  Christians,  po- 
tential in  all  mankind.  Whenever  we  speak 
of  it  as  pertaining  to  the  future,  as  an  ideal,  or 
a  goal,  or  a  task  to  be  achieved,  it  is  a  larger, 
more  comprehensive  unity  that  is  meant. 
But,  as  the  apostle  tells  us :  ^^he  that  hath  the 
Son  hath  life";  and  as  our  Lord  tells  us:  ^'he 
hath  passed  out  of  death  into  life."  Where 
there  is  life  there  is  hope;  and  where  there  is 
any  degree  of  the  life  of  Christ  among  Chris- 
tians, there  is  just  the  same  degree  of  Christian 
unity.     For  things  that  are  equal  to  the  same 


The  True  Point  of  View  69 

thing  are  equal  to  each  other.  Christian 
unity  is  the  life  of  Christ,  implanted  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  his  disciples  (see  page  57). 
This  is  the  doctrine ;  and  the  duty  thereon  con- 
sequent is  not  difficult  to  deduce. 

For  secondly,  I  believe  it  to  be  a  mistake  to 
attempt  to  promote  unity  from  the  top  instead 
of  from  the  bottom.  The  natural  order  of 
progress  seems  to  be  indicated  in  the  second 
great  commandment  of  the  gospel.  Christian 
neighbors  are  to  form  a  more  perfect  union, 
not  by  their  church  constitutions,  but  by  the 
love  of  Christ  constraining  them  to  love  one 
another  as  each  loves  himself.  Then  the 
leaven  is  to  work  in  thousands  of  little  com- 
munities, scattered  over  all  the  earth.  Then 
the  same  spirit  of  love  will  cause  these  tiny 
clusters,  here  a  few  and  there  a  few,  to  blend 
and  coalesce.  Local  limits  are  passed,  racial 
prejudices  are  melted  down,  national  bounda- 
ries are  overleaped,  all  barriers  are  burned 
away  by  the  ardent  flame  of  love,  which  burns 
on  till  the  whole  world  is  a  fellowship  of 
brothers  in  Christ  the  elder  brother. 


yo       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

I  am  not  describing  the  past  growth  of 
Christianity,  except  in  its  initial  stages.  We 
all  know  how  soon  this  simple  program  of 
Jesus  was  frustrated  by  the  pride  of  man, 
which  counted  a  nation  conquered  for  Christ 
when  its  kings  and  princes  had  received  water 
baptism;  which  sacrificed  brotherhood  to  the 
lust  of  power,  and  righteousness  to  creeds  and 
ceremonies;  which  built  up  rival  dominions, 
as  uncouth  as  the  image  in  Daniel's  vision,  and 
called  them  churches  of  Christ  And  some  of 
these  same  churches  of  Christ  (God  save  the 
mark!)  are  identical  with  nations  now  in 
deadly  strife;  it  is  churches  like  these  that 
some  people  suppose  are  to  be  invited  to  come 
together  and  vote  themselves  the  body  of 
Christ.  What  a  sacrilege!  There  is  no 
Christian  unity,  except  the  love  of  Christ  in 
the  hearts  of  his  disciples.  Love  is  light,  and 
we  are  to  let  it  shine  in  all  the  relations  of 
life.  If  any  one  thinks  this  unpractical,  he 
should  study  the  alphabet  of  Christianity  and 
learn  how  utterly  unpractical  is  anything  that 
leaves  it  out.     It  is  precisely  its  practical  ap- 


The  True  Point  of  View  71 

plication  which  comes  next  in  order.  A  man 
might  climb  a  ladder,  kicking  out  each  round 
behind  him  as  he  goes  up,  and  then  call  from 
the  top  to  his  neighbor:  "come  up  hither,"  but 
he  would  call  in  vain.  Many  people  have  im- 
bibed the  notion  that  the  teachings  of  Christ 
are  as  impossible  to  put  in  practise.  When 
they  hear  any  one  of  those  trumpet  calls  to  the 
spirit,  like  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart," 
or  "Hallowed  be  thy  name,"  they  admit  that 
here  is  a  glorious  ideal,  and  that  //  everybody 
would  live  up  to  it,  this  world  would  be  a 
Paradise,  but  they  ask  how  this  can  be  ef- 
fected? There  are  helps,  I  reply,  right  at  our 
hand,  in  the  common  relations  of  everyday  life. 
We  proceed  to  investigate  some  of  the  uncon- 
ventional means  of  grace. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  HOME 

That  is  where  charity  begins,  and  charity  is 
love;  he  who  bade  us  love  our  neighbors  as 
ourselves  surely  expects  us  to  bestow  that  grace 
upon  our  nearest  neighbors,  even  them  of  our 
own  household. 

Some  characters  in  fiction  are  as  well  known 
as  most  characters  in  history.  One  of  them 
is  Mrs.  Jellyby,  with  her  eyes  fixed  on  Borrio- 
boola  Gha,  and  her  house  (not  a  home)  beg- 
garing description.  How  Dickens  would 
have  enjoyed  girding  at  the  right  Reverends 
and  the  wrong  Reverends,  if  he  had  caught 
some  of  them  proposing  a  convention  for  unity 
in  the  church  universal,  while  they  were  no- 
torious for  making  their  own  homes  unhappy. 
The  case  is  supposable;  and  even  the  hypothe- 
sis is  sufficient  to  confirm  our  contention  that 

little  duties  precede  great  ones;  that  the  flame 

^2 


The  Home  73 


should  burn,  brightly  and  quietly,  at  our  own 
hearth-stones,  before  we  try  to  kindle  a  great 
blaze  to  be  reflected  in  the  front  pages  of  the 
secular  newspapers.  It  was  Dickens,  by  the 
way,  who  gave  to  the  boys  of  an  American 
schoolship  a  motto  quite  germane  to  the  whole 
subject  before  us:  *^Do  all  the  good  you  can, 
and  don't  make  any  fuss  about  it." 

What  is  to  become  of  our  Christian  homes? 
A  man  lately  died  who  did  what  one  man 
could  to  stem  the  downward  drift.  I  refer  to 
Dr.  Samuel  W.  Dike,  founder  of  the  New 
England  Divorce  Reform  League,  which  soon 
took  on  a  national  scope.  Thoughtful  by  na- 
ture, deeply  read  in  all  branches  of  the  new 
science  of  Sociology,  he  early  saw  and  felt  the 
strategic  position  of  the  home  for  the  solution 
of  our  leading  social  problems.  He  was  fond 
of  saying:  '^the  question  is  not  what  we  can 
do  for  the  home,  but  what  the  home  can  do 
for  us."  He  had  distinct  and  clear-cut  plans 
for  using  the  ministry  of  the  home  in  the  sal- 
vation of  the  world.  And  yet  the  response  to 
his  efforts  was  discouragingly  small;  he  was 


74       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

as  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  a  great  wilder- 
ness. ♦ 

"Truths  would  you  teach,  to  save  a  sinking  land? 
All  shun,  none  aid  you,  and  few  understand." 

Dr.  Dike  published  no  books,  but  he  was  a 
diligent  sower  of  the  seed  out  of  which  books 
are  made.  Those  who  are  familiar  with  his 
lifework  will  recognize  my  indebtedness  to  it 
in  some  of  the  pages  that  follow. 

Many  who  would  assent  to  the  familiar 
lines : 

"Home's  not  merely  four  square  walls, 
Though  with  pictures  hung  and  gilded," 

fail  to  perceive  that  home  also  exceeds  the 
sum  of  the  people  who  compose  it.  That  sum 
would  be  the  same  if  each  of  these  individuals 
was  confined  to  a  separate  room  of  the  house; 
but  home  is  society,  and  Christian  unity  is  the 
unity  of  society.  After  centuries  of  too  ex- 
clusive dealing  with  individuals,  Christianity 
is  returning  to  its  primal  proclamation:  ^The 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand."  It  is  waking 
up  to  realize  the  duty  and  the  glory  of  leaven- 
ing all  human  society  with  the  spirit  of  our 


The  Home  75 


Lord.  It  lays  hold  eagerly  of  every  power 
that  it  can  utilize  to  further  this  comprehen- 
sive purpose;  but  as  yet  it  has  made  scant  use 
of  that  modest  but  mighty  ally,  the  home. 
One  needs  only  to  look  at  the  home — not  an 
impossibly  perfect  one,  but  such  as  w^e  may 
see  all  around  us, — to  perceive  its  divine  adap- 
tation to  such  an  end.  Probably  most  of  the 
readers  of  this  book  had  their  birth  and  early 
training  in  a  Christian  home.  If  any  such 
reader  should  attempt  to  untwist  and  separate 
from  his  life  the  contributions  made  to  that 
life  by  his  childhood's  home,  he  would  find  it 
a  difficult  feat;  they  are  not  like  the  strands  of 
a  cable,  but  like  the  tissue  of  a  living  organ. 
The  analogy  might  be  followed  in  some  detail. 
It  is  great  Nature,  or  to  speak  more  justly,  it 
is  our  Father,  that  weaves  the  mysterious  web 
of  physical  tissue  which  becomes  the  building 
and  repairing  force,  the  conservative  and  at 
the  same  time  progressive  element,  in  the 
whole  structure  of  the  human  body.  From 
this  view-point,  how  thoroughly  modern  is 
the  One  Hundred  and  Thirty-ninth  Psalm. 


76       The  'Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

*'Thou  didst  form  my  inward  parts;  thou  didst  knit  me 
together  in  my  mother's  womb.  My  frame  was-  not  hid- 
den from  thee,  when  I  was  made  in  secret,  and  curiously 
wrought  in  the  lowest  parts  of  the  earth." 

Now  the  home  is  the  living  tissue  of  society, 
the  place  where,  by  subtle  and  hidden  proc- 
esses its  very  fabric  is  originally  woven. 
Home  is  the  fountain  of  our  life-powers  dur- 
ing their  whole  activity,  the  salt  that  preserves 
and  the  tonic  that  restores  them.  Character  is 
the  normal,  specific  product  of  the  home;  and 
character  is  what  all  the  world  is  sighing  for. 
When  your  character  began  you  cannot  tell 
with  any  definiteness ;  but  how  and  why  it  be- 
gan is  more  easily  said.  You  were  enswathed 
in  the  atmosphere  of  a  home,  and  you  were 
breathing,  as  the  breath  of  your  daily  life,  its 
spiritual  principles,  habits,  and  ideals,  long 
before  you  came  to  distinct  moral  conscious- 
ness. 

In  Bushnell's  Christian  Nurture,  there  is  a 
striking  chapter,  expounding  a  striking  text. 
The  text  is  Jer.  7:  18 — ^The  children  gather 
wood,  and  the  fathers  kindle  the  fire,  and  the 
women  knead  the  dough,  to  make  cakes  to  the 


The  Home  77 


queen  of  heaven,  and  to  pour  out  drink-offer- 
ings to  other  gods,  that  they  may  provoke  me 
to  anger."  The  theme  is  the  organic  unity  of 
the  family,  and  the  argument  is  that  of  Paul, 
w^hen  he  would  provoke  his  ov^n  people  to 
jealousy  by  the  example  of  the  Gentiles. 
Everyw^here,  outside  of  Christianity,  families 
go  together,  in  their  thoughts,  w^ords,  feelings, 
and  acts,  as  they  have  done  from  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world.  Christian  families  cannot 
escape  this  law,  if  they  would;  precepts  that 
go  counter  to  the  family  spirit  and  practise 
are  words  cast  upon  the  winds.  But  they 
ought  not  to  escape  it  if  they  could,  for  God 
is  in  it;  his  covenant  is  with  these  households 
unto  a  thousand  generations.  That  covenant 
is  being  fulfilled  in  the  everyday  life  of  a 
Christian  home. 

When  we  set  memory  at  work  upon  our 
childhood,  we  recall  certain  outlines;  the  ex- 
perience of  manhood  fills  them  out;  and 
so,  though  the  processes  of  Christian  nur- 
ture are  out  of  sight,  some  of  its  results  are 
clear.     We  need  not  try  to  add  another  to 


78       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

the  many  definitions  of  religion;  but  our  own 
"experience  of  religion" — not  in  the  technical, 
but  in  the  true  sense — came  first  to  us  through 
the  training,  of  home.  It  was  a  mother,  per- 
haps, who  taught  us  to  say  "Our  Father,"  and 
we  began  to  feel  dimly  that  the  great  God  was 
like  father  and  mother  both.  Dependence 
was  an  element  in  this  feeling,  trust  was  an- 
other. The  correlative  ideas  of  obligation 
and  obedience  dawned  upon  consciousness 
naturally  from  the  repetition  of  home  duties, 
and  were  purified  and  elevated  into  the  sphere 
of  worship.  There  was  family  government  in 
the  home;  childhood's  faults  were  dealt  with 
faithfully  but  kindly;  patience  had  her  perfect 
work,  and  forgiveness  followed  close  upon  re- 
pentance. Thus  great  vistas  were  opened, 
giving  new  views  of  the  loving-kindness  of 
God.  Hope,  the  star  of  childhood,  led  us  into 
invincible  optimism,  and  helped  our  parents 
to  make  the  eternal  home  of  the  blessed  a  real 
thing  to  us.  The  Bible  came  to  us  first  in  solu- 
tion, by  the  medium  of  pictures,  and  of  stories 
that  had  been  predigested  for  home  consump- 


The  Home  79 


tion.  The  services  of  the  sanctuary  were 
doubtless  wearisome  and  largely  unmeaning; 
small  wonder  if  we  complained  and  kicked 
against  them;  but  long  before  we  went  to 
church,  the  home  had  trained  us  to  submit  to 
unwelcome  discipline;  and  after  all,  the  ser- 
vice was  only  family  worship  indefinitely  ex- 
tended. We  can  realize  now,  if  we  could  not 
then,  what  inward  springs  of  character  we 
should  have  lost,  if  the  holy  time  had  been  al- 
ways spent  in  playing  with  other  children. 

Moreover,  life  is  not  summed  up  in  wor- 
ship, nor  in  what  is  commonly  known  as  re- 
ligion. In  the  true  home,  the  unseemly  di- 
vorce between  sacred  and  secular  is  unknown. 
Both  in  the  daily  plays  and  in  the  daily  tasks 
of  the  home,  some  of  the  finest  fruits  of  char- 
acter are  being  slowly  matured.  Children 
train  one  another,  in  wholesome  and  effective 
ways,  to  courage,  activity,  endurance,  vigor, 
perseverance;  to  hones.ty,  courtesy,  truth,  jus- 
tice, fidelity;  to  self-restraint,  self-respect,  re- 
gard for  others,  affection,  reverence.  Mean- 
while, they  are  not  only  watched,  but  encour- 


8o       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

aged  and  nurtured  in  faith,  hope,  and  love,  by 
a  Christian  father  and  mother.  When  the 
spirit  of  the  home  is  the  spirit  of  Christ,  the 
whole  family,  as  a  social  unit,  is  growing  up 
in  all  things  into  him  who  is  the  head,  even 
Christ.  What  is  this  but  the  supreme  type  of 
Christian  unity,  the  kingdom  of  God  in  minia- 
ture and  sample? 

The  pessimist  interrupts  us  here  with  his  ac- 
customed wail.  There  are  no  such  families, 
he  says,  in  the  present  generation,  and  there 
will  soon  be  no  families  at  all.  The  world  is 
given  up  to  hotels  and  boarding-houses,  where 
children  are  undesirable  citizens.  The  auto- 
mobile and  the  golf-links  have  destroyed  the 
Sabbath.  The  feverish  pressure  of  business 
leaves  no  time  for  home  training;  and  as  for 
home  discipline,  the  new  commandment  is  in 
full  force:  ^'parents,  obey  your  children." 
The  divorce  courts  break  up  a  yearly  increas- 
ing multitude  of  homes ;  the  enhanced  cost  of 
living  and  the  growing  fascination  of  worldly 
pleasures  make  young  married  people  more 
and  more  reluctant  to  bring  children  into  the 


The  Home  8l 


world.  At  one  pole  of  society  is  the  rich 
man's  palace,  at  the  other  the  poor  man's  dive; 
neither  is  a  home. 

Truly,  this  indictment  gives  us  matter  for 
serious  reflection  and  stimulus  to  needed  re- 
form. But  why  should  our  friend  the  pessi- 
mist hold  his  little  corner  of  experience  so 
close  to  his  eyes  that  it  shuts  out  the  great 
world?  Our  country  looks  small  on  the  map 
of  the  globe;  but  by  the  census  of  1910  there 
are  20,255,555  families  in  the  United  States. 
Let  us  grant  that  there  is  not  a  single  absolutely 
flawless  home  among  them;  but  let  it  be 
granted  on  the  other  side  that  five  in  a  hun- 
dred, at  the  lowest  calculation,  are  genuine 
Christian  homes.  Who  can  estimate  the  leav- 
ening power  of  a  million  Christian  homes  in 
America? 

While  I  write  this  chapter,  a  letter  comes 
in  from  a  young  layman  in  Beirut,  Syria,  in 
answer  to  one  I  had  sent  on  the  occasion  of 
the  death  of  his  mother,  who  was  my  friend. 
^'She  was  a  great  blessing  to  her  children,"  he 
writes.     ''How  often  I  have  thought  of  my 


82       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

rich  heritage  in  my  parents ;  they  did  not  leave 
much  money  or  property,  but  the  blessed 
memory  of  God-fearing  lives  and  the  seeds  of 
righteous  living  planted  in  their  children. 
There  is  a  fresh  incentive  for  us  to  honor  her 
by  continuing  the  noble  work  she  tried  to  do." 

The  other  children  of  that  mother  are  wit- 
nessing for  Christ  in  America,  in  China,  and 
in  Turkey.  Could  the  history  of  that  one 
family  be  written,  it  would  open  up  to  view  a 
thousand  streams  from  the  river  of  life  that 
have  made  glad  the  city  of  our  God.  But  the 
history  of  such  a  family  is  never  written,  save 
in  the  book  of  life;  the  Lord  knoweth  them 
that  are  his;  their  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in 
God. 

The  pessimist  has  called  renewed  attention 
to  certain  evils  with  which  we  are  grappling 
and  must  long  grapple,  but  on  the  main  ques- 
tion he  simply  has  no  case.  There  is  force, 
however,  in  the  complaint  voiced  by  some  of 
the  most  thoughtful  Christians  of  our  time, 
that  the  family  is  being  subjected  to  severe 
pressure  from  various  directions.     Now  that 


The  Home  83 


nearly  all  lines  of  industry  are  open  to  women, 
a  strong  temptation  is  felt  in  many  households 
of  the  poor,  to  add  to  the  family  income  by 
utilizing  the  outside  toil  of  the  wife  and 
mother.  Sometimes  this  pressure  comes  from 
the  husband,  sometimes  from  the  wife  herself. 
The  question:  ^What  is  to  become  of  the 
home  meanwhile?"  is  dismissed  as  too  ab- 
stract, or,  if  put  concretely,  'What  will  be- 
come of  the  children?"  it  is  solved  through  the 
good  offices  of  neighbors  or  neighborly  socie- 
ties and  social  settlements.  Too  often,  in  the 
face  of  stringent  laws,  the  labor  of  the  children 
themselves  is  extorted.  The  evil  in  another 
shape  assails  families  somewhat  higher  in  the 
scale.  Not  only  are  the  professions  and  vari- 
ous forms  of  clerical  service  open  to  women, 
and  eagerly  sought  to  secure  independence, 
but  economic  considerations  lead  an  increas- 
ing number  of  men  to  look  dubiously  upon 
marriage,  and  either  to  defer  it  as  long  as 
possible,  or  to  stay  content  in  bachelorhood. 

There  is  a  further  obstacle  to  which  we  can- 
not shut  our  eyes.     It  is  that  the  present  tactics 


84       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

of  the  churches  tend  to  neglect  or  to  push  aside 
into  an  inferior  place,  the  perennnial  ministry 
of  the  home.  We  have  been  dominated  for 
more  than  half  a  century  by  a  continued  insist- 
ence on  public  meetings,  and  on  miscellaneous 
societies,  banded  together  for  every  good  pur- 
pose under  the  sun,  but  calling  people  away 
from  the  home,  and  leaving  to  the  latter  but 
slight  time  and  force  for  its  proper  work. 
The  late  Dr.  Daniel  Merriman  ^  puts  this 
none  too  strongly. 

"Curiously  enough,  the  church  is  yielding  itself  to  this 
craze  for  organization,  and  in  yielding,  is  itself  a  chief 
sinner  against  its  own  birthright  and  mission;  for  instead 
of  fostering  to  the  utmost  the  family  and  home,  in  whose 
strength,  purity,  and  beauty  its  own  strength  is  bound  up, 
it  is  creating  in  and  around  itself  a  multitude  of  organ- 
izations which  distract  attention  from  family  life  and  the 
home.  We  need  to  take  care  that  we  do  not  pull  down 
God's  work  and  put  contempt  upon  his  methods  with  one 
hand,  while  we  are  perhaps  intent  on  doing  his  work  by 
magnifying  our  own  contrivance  with  the  other." 

The  situation  calls  for  a  form  of  self-denial 
that  is  quite  peculiar.  Benevolently  inclined 
persons  ought  to  refuse  firmly  the  temptation 

1  In  a  paper  read  at  Minneapolis,  October,  189a. 


The  Home  85 


to  perform  a  whole  round  of  good  works 
which  can  be  carried  on  better  in  the  family 
circle,  and  they  ought  to  use  persistent  urgency 
to  stir  up  the  homes  of  the  people  to  return 
to  their  legitimate  functions.  Dr.  Dike  has 
condensed  the  philosophy  of  this  matter  into 
a  single  pungent  sentence:  ^ 

"It  is  a  sociological  crime  to  let  alone  a  torpid  social 
institution  because  you  can  more  easily  do  its  work  else- 
where than  awaken  its  sluggish  forces." 

The  question  comes  back  upon  us,  then, — 
^What  is  the  special  ministry  of  the  home,  as 
one  great  department  of  the  kingdom  of 
God?"  The  answer  is  that  its  chief  work  is 
to  show  forth  the  love  of  God  and  the  love 
of  man,  in  the  natural  relations  of  wedded  life, 
and  in  the  nurture  of  children  from  their  birth 
up.  Every  child  is  robbed  of  its  birthright  if 
it  never  has  the  experience  of  a  loving  home. 
Jacob  Riis,  in  his  excellent  book  ''The  Peril 
and  the  Preservation  of  the  Home^'  ^  men- 
tions an  interesting  series  of  experiments  be- 

2  Report  on  the  Family,  p.  18.     Boston,  1907. 

3  The  William  S.  Bull  lectures,  pp.  22,  23.  Philadelphia, 
1903. 


86       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

gun  in  New  York  in  1899.     I  take  pleasure 
in  quoting  his  vivid  language. 

"It  was  an  old  scandal  in  our  city  that  practically  all 
the  babies  in  the  Foundling  Hospital  died  there.  I  say 
scandal,  not  in  the  sense  that  any  one  was  to  blame.  They, 
tried  hard  enough.  Men  are  not  monsters,  to  see  a  de- 
fenceless baby  die  without  trying  to  help  it.  In  the  worst 
Tammany  days,  we  had  herds  of  Jersey  cows  on  Randall's 
Island  kept  expressly  for  those  waifs.  Everything  was 
done  that  pity  and  experience  could  suggest,  but  nothing 
availed.  The  babies  died,  and  there  was  no  help  for  it, 
until  four  years  ago,  when  a  joint  Committee  of  the  State 
Charities  Aid  Association  and  the  New  York  Association 
for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  took  them  o£E 
the  hands  of  the  city  authorities  and  put  them  in  homes. 
The  first  year  after  that,  the  mortality  among  them  fell  to 
a  little  over  fifty  percent,  the  second  year  it  was  just  be- 
)^ond  thirty  percent,  and  the  fourth,  which  was  last  year,  it 
had  fallen  to  ten  and  seven  tenths  percent,  a  figure  quite 
below  the  mortality  among  all  the  children  two  years  of 
age  in  the  whole  city.  And  the  experience  in  Brooklyn 
was  just  the  same.  What  did  it  mean?  It  meant  this, 
and  nothing  less,  that  these  children  had  come  at  last  to 
their  rights;  that  every  baby  is  entitled  to  one  pair  of 
mother's  arms  around  its  neck;  that  its  God-given  right 
is  a  home." 

Incidentally,  this  narrative  shows  us  two 
things ;  first,  that  there  are  a  great  many  homes 
so  thoroughly  Christian  that  they  are  willing 
to  take  in  and  nurture  even  the  waifs  of  so- 
ciety; what  multitudes  more  there  must  be 
that  are  trying  to  give  Christian  training  to 


The  Home  87 


their  own  flesh  and  blood!  Again,  we  per- 
ceive here  one  of  several  indications  that  the 
pendulum  has  begun  to  swing  back  from  the 
crowded  city  to  the  open  country.  The  last 
two  decades  have  furnished  many  solid  mo- 
tives, well  fitted  to  arrest  the  rush  to  the  great 
centres  of  population,  and  to  restore  to  the 
country  its  proper  share  in  the  world's  life. 
This  tendency  works  directly  in  the  interest  of 
pure  and  orderly  homes. 

It  is  the  business  of  the  Christian  church, 
and  of  all  who  love  our  Lord,  to  promote  in 
every  way  the  planting  and  reclaiming  of  the 
largest  number  and  the  highest  quality  of 
Christian  families.  It  is  the  business  of  these 
families,  in  their  turn,  to  send  out  into  the  va- 
ried energies  of  the  kingdom  of  God  a  con- 
stant stream  of  well-trained  youth,  ardently 
loyal  to  the  King,  and  faithfully  co-operating 
with  each  division  of  his  army  to  bear  the  ban- 
ner of  the  cross  to  victory.  To  secure  a  nomi- 
nal Christian  unity  with  the  home  left  out 
would  be  a  calamity;  the  work  would  have  to 
be  done  all  over  again.     But  the  beneficent 


88       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

activity  of  the  home  carries  with  it  the 
heavenly  harmony  of  all  God's  people  every- 
where; and  so  we  regard  the  home  as  lying  at 
the  very  foundation  of  all  the  divinely  ap- 
pointed means  of  grace. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  SCHOOL 

At  this  point,  it  may  be  well  to  give  heed  to 
the  reader  who  has  been  waiting  patiently  to 
file  an  objection. 

"You  have  been  mounting  a  hobby,"  he 
complains,  "and  riding,  as  fast  as  possible, 
away  from  your  subject.  An  essay  on  The 
Home,  with  the  phrase  ^Christian  Unity' 
lugged  in  here  and  there,  is  a  very  different 
matter  from  the  task  demanded  by  the  theme; 
namely,  a  discussion  of  the  question  how  the 
whole  people  of  God,  scattered  throughout  all 
lands,  and  torn  by  internal  dissensions,  can  re- 
gain the  unity  of  the  apostolic  age.  And  now 
you  evidently  intend  to  put  forth  a  few  lucu- 
brations on  the  school,  the  shop,  and  what 
not."  I  respectfully  plead  guilty  to  that  in- 
tention, and  not  guilty  to  the  main  charge; 
asking  the  courteous  objector  to  note  the  state- 

89 


90       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

ment  in  the  Preface,  that  the  method  of  this 
book  is  inductive,  not  logical;  and  also  the 
claim  in  the  Introduction,  that  society,  busi- 
ness, politics,  etc.,  are  embraced  in  the  king- 
dom of  God;  and  also  the  phrase  at  the  close 
of  Part  II,  Chapter  I,  ^'unconventional  means 
of  grace."  Later,  we  shall  have  a  few  chap- 
ters on  conventional  means.  What  the  objec- 
tor seems  to  desiderate  is  a  great  ecclesiastical 
movement,  visible  to  all  men,  and  heralded  by 
a  cosmopolitan  press;  what  the  present  writer 
earnestly  seeks  to  aid  is  an  inward,  spiritual 
movement,  known  of  God  rather  than  men, 
reaching  down  to  the  roots  of  everyday  life,  as 
unobtrusive  as  the  air  we  breathe,  and  as  use- 
ful. When  we  were  studying  the  theory  of 
the  subject,  in  Part  I,  it  was  observed  that  al- 
most any  of  the  precepts  of  Christ  which  we 
examined  were  sufficient,  if  universally  fol- 
lowed, to  secure  Christian  unity;  here  in  Part 
II,  the  practical  question  is  constantly  before 
us;  what  will  induce  men  to  obey  those  pre- 
cepts of  our  Lord?  The  first  answer  has  been 
already  given:  conserve  and  multiply  Chris- 


The  School  91 


tian  homes.  The  practical  difficulty  is  urged : 
"but  multitudes  of  children  never  know  such 
homes" ;  and  the  practical  answer  is  now  ready 
in  a  second  means  of  grace,  Christian  schools. 
These  cannot  take  the  place  of  homes,  it  is 
true,  but  they  can  do  immense  good.  Even 
when  children  have  had  ideal  home  training, 
they  ought  to  meet  those  who  lack  it,  in  the 
great  arena  of  the  common  school,  the  child's 
mirror  of  the  world  of  men.  ^  I  know  that 
■much  can  be  said  in  favor  of  an  exclusive 
home  training,  which  would  shelter  the  loved 
children  from  contact  with  the  rough-and- 
tumble  of  the  outside  world,  and  especially 
from  contact  with  its  wickedness.  I  know  too 
the  moral  flabbiness  that  often  results  from 
such  an  exclusive  policy.  Jesus  Christ  was  a 
great  democrat.  Christian  parents  ought  to 
pray  his  prayer  after  him:     "I  pray  not  that 

1  Compare  Comenius,  The  Great  Didactic  (Keatinge's  edi- 
tion), p.  216.  "When  a  tree  cultivator,  in  his  walks  through 
woods  and  thickets,  finds  a  sapling  suitable  for  transplanting, 
he  does  not  plant  it  in  the  same  place  where  he  finds  it,  but 
digs  it  out  and  places  it  in  an  orchard,  where  he  cares  for  it  in 
company  with  a  hundred  others.  And  therefore,  as  orchards 
are  laid  out  for  fruit-trees,  so  also  should  schools  be  erected 
for  the  young." 


92       The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

thou  shouldst  take  them  out  of  the  world,  but 
that  thou  shouldst  keep  them  from  the  evil." 
Let  us  look  in  on  one  of  our  public  schools 
in  session.  There  is  no  family  unity  here,  nor 
even  race  unity.  The  Italian  jostles  the  Pole ; 
the  Slovak  mingles  with  the  Swede;  the  boy 
of  pure  Saxon  blood  sits  beside  a  negro  boy, 
(for  this  scene  is  not  laid  in  the  sunny  South). 
Over  the  school-house  waves  the  American 
flag,  and  under  that  flag  the  experiment  is  be- 
ing tried  of  moulding  and  training  these  rest- 
less children  of  restless  races  into  good  Ameri- 
can citizens.  I  should  say,  the  experiment  is 
being  repeated  for  the  ten  thousandth  time. 
We  are  always  confident  of  its  success;  for  we 
know  of  no  way  of  judging  of  the  future  but 
by  the  past.  Note  yonder  Russian  Jewish 
maiden,  whose  dark  eyes  are  fixed  on  the 
teacher  as  intently  as  if  she  would  devour  her 
very  spirit.  She  is  to  be  another  Mary  An- 
tin;  she  will  prove  that  this  school  is  no  fail- 
ure, whatever  the  future  has  in  store  for  the 
two  or  three  score  of  other  pupils.  If  we 
could  visit  this  same  class  a  few  years  farther 


The  School  93 


on  in  their  course,  we  should  be  struck  by  their 
harmony  rather  than  their  diversity.  Ameri- 
canization has  become  triumphant;  the  for- 
eign born  hold  their  heads  just  a  little  higher 
than  the  native  born,  but  all  are  singing  to- 
gether with  a  will : 

"My  country,  'tis  of  thee,  Sweet  land  of  liberty." 

iWhat  of  the  children  of  the  poor,  and 
especially  those  that  had  no  home  advantages? 
The  common  school  is  their  paradise;  if  par- 
ents desire  to  keep  any  of  them  at  home  now 
and  then,  they  beg  and  plead  to  go  to  their 
teacher. 

What  of  the  children  of  the  rich,  and  espe- 
cially those  that  had  no  home  discipline? 
Their  parents  have  daily  cause  to  bless  the 
school  drill,  that  keeps  the  children  in  sub- 
jection to  rightful  authority.  Without  it,  they 
would  almost  certainly  make  a  wreck  of  life; 
with  it,  they  are  growing  not  only  into  habits 
of  order  and  application,  but  also  into  a 
hearty,  democratic  comradeship  with  all  their 
schoolmates,  in  an  atmosphere  that  applauds 


94       TKe  Meaning  of  CJiristian  Unity 

whatever  is  manly,  and  laughs  down  all  aristo- 
cratic pretension.     Hear  them  sing  again : 

"Then  let  us  pray  that  come  It  may, 

As  come  it  will  for  a'  that, 

That  sense  and  worth,  o'er  a'  the  earth, 

May  bear  the  gree,  and  a'  that. 

For  a'  that,  and  a'  that, 

It's  coming  yet,  for  a'  that, 

That  man  to  man,  the  warld  o*er 

Shall  brothers  be  for  a'  that." 

I  think  too  little  is  usually  made  of  the  dis- 
ciplinary value  of  school  athletics.  Often, 
ambitious  boys  enter  the  field,  with  eager  pas- 
sions that  have  never  brooked  submission  to 
any  kind  or  degree  of  authority.  The  only 
child  of  rich  parents,  for  instance,  may  hith- 
erto have  been  monarch  of  all  he  surveyed, 
and  his  right  there  was  none  to  dispute.  At 
his  own  sweet  will  he  has  let  his  angry  passions 
rise; — but  as  soon  as  he  appears  on  the  play- 
ground, he  finds  himself  no  longer  a  king  but 
only  a  pawn.  His  value  is  precisely  that  of 
his  digital  unit,  which  no  ciphers  can  multi- 
ply; he  has  to  play  the  game  for  all  he  is 
worth.  The  first  act  of  insubordination, 
whether  by  open  rebellion,  or  by  mere  neglect 


The  School  95 


of  the  proper  team-play,  is  instantly  met  by 
proper  discipline;  and  after  a  few  such  les- 
sons, the  boy  learns  his  place  and  co-operates 
heartily  with  the  rest.  The  habit  of  implicit 
obedience  will  stay  by  him  through  life — 
which  is  a  magnified  play-ground — and  will 
stand  him  in  good  stead. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  unity  that 
results  from  education  is  obtained  by  the  sup- 
pression of  individuality,  by  the  knocking  off 
of  the  precious  crystalline  structure  that  marks 
the  peculiar  development  of  this  or  that  orig- 
inal mind.  What  really  takes  place  is  pre- 
cisely the  contrary,  as  the  very  word  education 
testifies.  To  bring  these  rare  qualities  into 
the  light,  and  under  the  mastery  of  their  nomi- 
nal possessor,  this  is  the  teacher's  calling,  and 
none  is  more  glorious.  It  is  not  uniformity 
that  results  from  the  process  of  education,  but 
the  harmony  of  many  instruments  of  diverse 
quality  and  pitch.  The  two  conceptions  are 
no  more  alike  than  a  symphony  in  Albert  Hall 
is  like  the  clang  of  the  London  streets,  or  its 
analogue  that  Arthur  Hallam  found  so  irk- 
some: 


96       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

"But  if  I  praised  the  busy  town, 
He  loved  to  rail  against  it  still, 
For  'ground  in  yonder  social  mill 
We  rub  each  other's  angles  down, 
And  merge,'  he  said,  'in  form  and  gloss 
The  picturesque  of  man  and  man.'  " 

If  the  critic  persists  that,  after  all,  the  school 
is  a  mill  that  takes  the  raw  material  of  child- 
hood and  polishes  it  into  smoothness,  I  admit 
that  there  are  schools — and  schools.  In  my 
limited  observation  as  a  teacher,  and  again  as 
a  superintendent  of  schools,  I  have  sometimes 
seen  this  repulsive  grind,  which  substitutes  in- 
ducation  for  education.  But  in  the  first  place, 
there  is  a  true  as  well  as  a  false  grinding,  and 
its  very  object  and  result  is  to  bring  out  indi- 
viduality; witness  the  diamond,  which  none 
but  the  expert  would  recognize,  but  for  the 
polishing  of  its  brilliant  faces.  And  in  the 
next  place,  when  we  examined  the  Cardinal 
Precept  (Part  I,  Chapter  I),  we  found  that 
Christian  unity  is  not  an  attainment  but  a  goal. 
The  perfect  school  is  as  rare  as  the  perfect 
home ;  but  in  each  case  we  search  for  the  true 
ideal,  and  then  try  to  make  it  potent  in  actual 
life,  assured  that  it  will  prove  itself  an  engine 


The  School  97 


of  mighty  power  in  the  great  business  of  mak- 
ing the  kingdom  of  God  triumphant  in  human 
affairs.  What  would  Christian  unity  be  with 
education  left  out?  An  ignorant  enthusiasm, 
that  w^ould  soon  spend  itself.  To  build  that 
stately  temple  for  eternity,  we  must  delve 
patiently,  year  after  year,  at  its  vast  founda- 
tions that  are  out  of  sight.  In  ninety-nine 
cases  out  of  a  hundred,  the  teacher's  work  is 
unrecorded  and  unnoticed,  while  the  warrior's 
praises  are  sung  by  poets  and  orators;  but 
when  we  come  to  ask  their  relative  value  to 
human  society,  we  are  ashamed  to  speak  of 
them  in  the  same  breath.  One  destroys  and 
the  other  builds;  one  exterminates,  the  other 
perpetuates.  One  is  hostile  to  the  kingdom  of 
God ;  the  other  is  its  trusty  ally. 

This  last  statement  will  not  pass  without 
question.  Is  it  true,  after  all,  that  education 
is  Christian,  or  even  religious?  Are  we  not 
careful,  especially  in  America,  to  keep  it  color- 
less, to  guard  its  religious  neutrality?  It  is 
true  that  our  laws  and  customs  have  sought  to 
establish  this  impracticable  neutral  ground; 


98       The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

the  attempt  has  led  to  perpetual  turmoil,  but 
the  best  educators  are  beginning  to  see  day- 
light through  the  darkness,  now  that  the  true 
nature  of  education  is  better  understood.  On 
the  specific  point  which  occasioned  much  of 
the  controversy,  that  of  requiring  that  a  few 
verses  of  the  Bible  should  be  read  at  each 
school  session,  the  agitation  has  been  utterly 
needless;  the  issue  ought  never  to  have  been 
raised.  Some  teachers  whom  I  have  known 
have  met  this  requirement  with  a  legal  com- 
pliance, coupled  with  an  irreverence  of  man- 
ner most  injurious  to  the  religious  impression 
that  was  sought  by  the  statute.  *'What  you 
are,"  says  Emerson,  ^^speaks  so  loud  that  I  can- 
not hear  what  you  say."  ^ 

On  the  larger  subject  of  the  relation  of  the 
state  to  religious  education  in  America,  there 
exists  a  wide  but  not  a  hopeless  divergence  of 
opinion.  The  plan  which  is  perhaps  most 
characteristically  American  consists  in  a  divi- 

2  Compare  George  A.  Coe  in  the  Cyclopedia  of  Education, 
Vol.  V,  p.  147.  (New  York,  1913.)  ''It  is  a  matter  of  common 
knowledge  that  German  classes  in  'religion'  are  often  formal, 
perfunctory,  and  anything  but  religious,  because  the  teacher 
lacks  religious  motive," 


The  School  99 


sion  of  labor  that  commits  religion  to  the  home 
and  the  church,  education  to  the  state.  At  the 
opposite  extreme  is  the  contention  of  the  Ro- 
man Catholics  that  this  theory  of  education  is 
like  the  play  of  Hamlet  with  Hamlet's  part 
left  out.  Religion,  they  hold,  is  the  most  im- 
portant part  of  education,  and  religion  cannot 
be  taught  by  the  state,  only  by  the  church.  If 
the  state  taxes  all  citizens  to  support  its  god- 
less schools,  it  ought  to  subsidize  the  church 
schools.  Between  these  extremes  is  a  thought- 
ful and  probably  growing  multitude,  who  be- 
lieve that  by  following  either  of  these  policies 
something  would  be  lost  which  it  is  highly  im- 
portant to  retain.  For  on  the  first  plan,  there 
is  a  vast  number  of  children  whom  the  home 
and  the  church  never  reach  with  religious 
training;  the  home,  because  it  has  neither  the 
time  nor  the  ability;  the  church,  because  it 
cannot  compel  attendance  on  its  meetings. 
To  let  these  children  grow  up  without  such 
instruction  is  a  cruel  deprivation,  not  only  to 
them  but  to  the  state,  in  which  this  untrained 
element  becomes  a  continual  menace.     And 


lOO     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

on  the  other  plan,  both  the  state  and  the  child 
suffer  from  an  unwholesome  cleavage  of  the 
population  on  the  line  of  religious  convictions 
or  even  prejudices,  which  unavoidably  be- 
come accentuated  to  the  detriment  of  all  con- 
cerned ;  for  when  the  children  of  any  commu- 
nity are  educated  away  from  each  other,  there 
is  little  likelihood  that  the  community  itself 
will  become  united  and  strong.  So  a  third 
plan  proposed  is  to  set  apart  certain  school 
hours  each  week,  when  the  school  authorities, 
in  co-operation  with  the  parents,  shall  secure 
the  religious  instruction  of  Jewish  children 
by  their  Rabbis,  of  Catholics  and  Russians 
(Holy  Orthodox)  by  their  priests,  of  Protest- 
ants by  their  pastors,  of  others  by  ethical  in- 
structors, etc.  Whether  different  school- 
rooms should  be  used,  or  the  children  should 
be  sent  to  their  churches,  synagogues,  etc.,  is  an 
unessential  detail;  in  the  former  case,  the  pres- 
ent habit  of  many  children  to  look  slightingly 
on  religious,  as  compared  with  secular,  educa- 
tion, would  be  corrected;  in  the  latter  case, 
the  sacred  associations  of  the  sanctuary  would 


The  School  lOl 


have  their  appropriate  weight.  But  in  either 
case,  (and  this  is  no  unessential  detail),  the 
whole  educational  endeavor  would  develop  a 
true  organism,  in  which  (according  to  Kant's 
felicitous  definition),  each  part  is  at  the  same 
time  the  means  and  the  end  of  all  the  rest. 

I  confess,  I  expect  far  less  benefit  from  the 
few  hours  devoted  to  religious  instruction  than 
from  the  constant  and  unconscious  absorption 
by  the  child  of  the  teacher's  own  personality. 
The  true  remedy  for  godless  schools  is  to  put 
out  of  their  teaching  force  any  man  who 
would  read  the  Bible  flippantly,  any  woman 
whose  heart  is  in  fashion  and  folly.  Such  an 
exclusion  follows  naturally  and  inevitably 
when  we  have  found  the  right  answer  to  the 
question  from  which  we  have  been  digressing. 
^^Is  education  religious  or  not?"  They  who 
have  the  right  to  answer  that  question  with 
authority  are  the  recognized  masters  in  the 
field  of  education,  from  Comenius  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  through  Pestalozzi  in  the 
eighteenth,  and  Froebel  in  the  nineteenth,  to 
Montessori  in  the  twentieth. 


I02     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

Let  us  examine  a  few  significant  extracts 
from  these  writers. 

Comenius,  The  Great  Didactic,  page  218.  ^ 

*'The  following  reasons  will  establish  that  not  the  chil- 
dren of  the  rich  or  of  the  powerful  only,  but  of  all  alike, 
boys  and  girls,  both  noble  and  ignoble,  rich  and  poor,  in 
all  cities  and  towns,  villages  and  hamlets,  should  be  sent 
to  school. 

*'In  the  first  place,  all  who  have  been  born  to  man's 
estate  have  been  born  with  the  same  end  in  view,  namely, 
that  they  may  be  men,  that  is  to  say,  rational  creatures, 
the  lords  of  other  creatures,  and  the  images  of  their 
Creator.  All,  therefore,  must  be  brought  on  to  a  point 
at  which,  being  properly  imbued  with  wisdom,  virtue,  and 
piety,  they  may  usefully  employ  the  present  life  and  be 
w^orthily  prepared  for  that  to  come.  God  himself  has  fre- 
quently asserted  that  with  him  there  is  no  respect  of  per- 
sons, so  that  if,  while  we  admit  some  to  the  culture  of  the 
intellect,  we  exclude  others,  we  commit  an  injury  not  only 
against  those  who  share  the  same  nature  as  ourselves,  but 
against  God  himself,  who  wishes  to  be  acknowledged,  to 
be  loved,  and  to  be  praised,  by  all  upon  whom  he  has  im- 
pressed his  image." 

Pestalozzi,  Swan  Song,  §  139,  page  274.^ 

"As  the  method  of  the  development  of  the  faculties  by 
elementary  education  is  based  on  love  and  faith,  it  must 
necessarily  lead  to  Christian  thought,  sentiment  and  ac- 
tion. Of  course  religion  of  itself  does  not  turn  out  a 
merchant,  a  tradesman,  a  scholar,  or  an  artist.  But  it 
grounds,  develops,  and  fortifies  the  frame  of  mind  which 

^Keatinge's  edition.      (London,  1896.) 

*  Quoted  from  Pinloche's  Pestalozzi.  (London,  1902.)  "Ele- 
mentary Education"  is  what  he  calls  his  system.  The  italics 
are  his. 


The  School  103 


elevates,  sanctifies,  purifies,  and  makes  truly  human  in  its 
inward  nature  the  calling  of  the  merchant,  the  trades- 
man, and  every  other  calling.  .  .  .  All  means  of  quicken- 
ing the  power  common  to  all  men  which  do  not  start  from 
the  spirit  and  the  life  of  our  inner  divine  being,  but  from 
the  sensual  impulses  of  the  flesh  and  blood  of  our  animal 
selfishness,  are  not  elementary.  It  is  the  complete  har- 
mony of  elementary  education  with  Christianity  which 
also  distinguishes  it  from  the  spirit  of  the  age." 

Froebel,  Education  of  Man,  §  62,  page  94.^ 

^'Nature,  as  well  as  all  that  exists,  is  the  declaration 
and  revelation  of  God.  Everything  that  exists  has  its 
foundation  in  the  revealing  of  God.  Everything  that 
exists  has  its  foundation  and  existence  only  through  the 
life  abiding  in  God.  ...  It  is  possible  for  the  Christian 
only,  for  the  man  with  Christian  thought,  life,  and  effort, 
to  come  to  a  true  conception  and  vivid  recognition  of 
Nature ;  only  such  a  man  can  be  a  genuine  naturalist.  It 
is  possible  for  man  to  approach  to  a  true  knowledge  of 
Nature  only  when  he  is  consciously  or  unconsciously,  dimly 
or  clearly,  a  Christian ;  that  is,  when  he  is  penetrated  with 
the  truth  of  the  one  living  power  of  God  working  in  all 
things;  when  he  Is  filled  with  the  one  living  spirit  of 
God,  which  Is  in  all  things,  and  to  which  he  Is  himself 
subjected,  through  which  all  Nature  has  Its  being  and 
existence,  and  through  which  he  Is  In  a  condition  to  per- 
ceive this  one  spirit  in  Its  being  and  its  unity,  in  the  small- 
est phenomenon,  and  in  the  sum  of  all  the  phenomena  of 
Nature." 

Montessori,  The  Montessori  Method,  page 

''Let  us  try  to  enter  Into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  those 
first  followers  of  Jesus  as  they  heard  him  speak  of  a  king- 

^  Jarvis's  edition.     (New  York,  1886.) 
®  (New  York,  1912.). 


104     ^^^  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

dom  not  of  this  world,  greater  far  than  any  earthly  king- 
dom, no  matter  how  royally  conceived.  In  their  sim- 
plicity they  asked  of  him,  'Master,  tell  us  who  shall  be 
greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven?'  To  which  Christ, 
caressing  the  head  of  a  little  child,  who,  with  reverent 
wondering  eyes,  looked  into  his  face,  replied,  'Whosoever 
shall  become  as  one  of  these  little  ones,  he  shall  be  greatest ' 
in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.'  Now  let  us  picture,  among 
those  to  whom  these  words  were  spoken,  an  ardent,  wor- 
shipping soul,  who  takes  them  into  his  heart.  With  a 
mixture  of  respect  and  love,  of  sacred  curiosity  and  of  a 
desire  to  achieve  this  spiritual  greatness,  he  sets  himself 
to  observe  every  manifestation  of  this  little  child.  Even 
such  an  observer,  placed  in  a  classroom  filled  with  little 
children,  will  not  be  the  new  educator  whom  we  wish  to 
form.  But  let  us  seek  to  implant  in  the  soul  the  self- 
sacrificing  soul  of  the  scientist  with  the  reverent  love  of 
the  disciple  of  Christ,  and  we  shall  have  prepared  the 
spirit  of  the  teacher.  From  that  child  itself  he  will  learn 
how  to  perfect  himself  as  an  educator." 

Strange  to  say,  both  Froebel  and  Pestalozzi 
have  been  ignorantly  supposed  to  have  been 
hostile  to  Christianity.  Whenever  we  find 
as  we  sometimes  do,  a  teacher  who  holds 
that  education  and  religion  should  be  kept  in 
separate  compartments,  it  would  be  well  to 
send  him  to  school  to  the  great  masters  of  his 
art. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  CALLING 

After  the  home,  the  school ;  after  the  school 
the  work.  The  normal  man,  however,  does 
not  leave  the  home;  he  founds  a  family  of  his 
own ;  and  though  he  may  leave  the  school,  his 
education  is  continued  and  never  completed. 
Thus  the  kingdom  of  God  grows  like  a  tree, 
ever  assimilating  new  material. 

The  terms  work,  labor,  industry,  business, 
profession,  are  scarcely  comprehensive  enough 
to  cover  the  department  of  human  life  which 
we  are  to  consider  next.  If  not  in  themselves, 
yet  in  their  implications  and  associations,  they 
have  a  divisive  tendency,  as  seen  in  the  phrases 
^'working  classes,"  ^'labor  problems,"  "indus- 
trial occupations,"  "business  competition," 
"professional  jealousy."  Besides,  they  em- 
phasize the  active  side  of  the  subject;  but  if  we 

105 


lo6     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

seek  the  whole  truth,  we  shall  find  that  a  man 
is  acted  on  before  he  acts ;  he  is  called  into  the 
vineyard  before  he  labors  in  the  vineyard. 
The  good  old  Saxon  word  "calling'' — a  much 
better  word  than  its  fashionable  equivalent, 
"vocation" — forbids  leaving  God  out  of  the 
bargain,  whatever  our  business  is. 

I  may  digress  long  enough  to  make  it  clear 
that  this  book  is  written  for  men  who  believe 
in  God,  as  most  men  do.  Most  men  who 
think  they  do  not  are  merely  in  revolt  against 
an  inhuman  being  up  in  the  sky,  who  is  still 
sometimes  preached  as  the  God  of  the  Bible, 
but  who  is  really  as  dead  as  the  gods  of  Greece 
and  Rome.  I  ask  renewed  attention  to  the 
statement  at  the  beginning  of  Part  II,  that  this 
whole  discussion  falls  to  the  ground  unless 
Part  I  is  accepted;  in  other  words,  unless  we 
receive  Christ's  revelation  of  the  God  and 
Father  of  us  all,  whose  nature  and  whose 
name  is  love.  With  one  who  really  denies 
this  God,  it  is  commonly  of  little  use  to  rea- 
son; what  he  needs  is  to  come  close  to  a  real 
Christian.     I  was  greatly  impressed  when  a 


The  Calling  107 


boy  by  a  true  story  ^  of  a  young  Irish  lawyer, 
who  would  declaim  by  the  hour  against 
Christianity,  on  the  ground  that  England,  the 
oppressor  of  his  country,  was  a  Christian  na- 
tion, but  who  finally  said  to  the  Christian  who 
had  been  trying  to  win  him :  ^'You  spoke  of 
examples  of  religion  in  private  life.  Let  me 
tell  you,  the  example  of  my  old  aunt  has  been 
a  demonstration  to  me.  Satan  cannot  shake 
it."  I  could  give  more  than  one  such  instance 
from  my  own  pastoral  experience,  and  the 
leaders  of  the  "Men  and  Religion  Forward 
Movement"  could  supply  them  by  the  score. 
There  is  no  good  reason  why  reasonable  men 
should  shut  their  eyes  to  such  facts. 

But  to  return  from  this  digression:  each  of 
us  ought  to  regard  his  own  calling,  and  every- 
body's calling,  as  an  unconventional  means  of 
grace.  This  completely  reverses  what  poli- 
ticians call  the  labor  problem;  instead  of  ask- 
ing "what  can  we  do  for  labor?"  the  question 
becomes:  How  can  the  calling  of  the  lab- 
orer, or  that  of  the  employer,  or  that  of  any 

1  The  first  in  the  series  called  "A  Pastor's  Sketches,"  by  I.  S. 
Spencer.     (New  York,  1851,  p.  58.) 


io8     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

one  else,  advance  the  kingdom  of  God? 
Practically,  to  be  sure,  we  shall  come  out  at 
the  same  point  as  all  honest  men  reach,  so  far 
as  every  form  of  injustice  and  tyranny  is  con- 
cerned ;  the  glorious  King  whom  we  serve  will 
use  us  as  a  rod  wherewith  to  smite  the  oppres- 
sor, whether  it  be  an  oppressive  church  mem- 
ber that  evicts  his  poor  tenants  or  an  oppres- 
sive labor-union  that  mobs  a  faithful  work- 
man. 

Let  us  try  to  get  a  fair  view  of  the  whole 
situation,  remembering  that  here,  as  every- 
where, the  field  is  the  world.  A  quotation 
from  one  of  the  greatest  poems  ever  written 
will  make  a  good  starting-point. 

"If  I  have  despised  the  cause 

Of  my  man-servant  or  my  maid-servant, 

When  they  contended  v\^ith  me; 

What  then  shall  I  do  w/hen  God  riseth  up? 

And  when  he  visiteth,  what  shall  I  answer  him  ? 

Did  not  he  that  made  me  in  the  womb  make  him  ? 

And  did  not  one  fashion  us  in  the  womb?"  - 

No  one  knows  the  age  of  this  poem,  but  at 
any  rate,  it  is  thousands  of  years  older  than 

2  Job  31:13-15. 


The  Calling  109 


we  are,  while  yet  it  is  so  fresh  and  modern  as 
to  come  upon  us  with  startling  force.  The 
passage  cited  gives  all  the  main  elements  of 
our  own  social  and  industrial  problems;  jus- 
tice and  injustice,  service  and  responsibility, 
humanity  and  brotherhood.  Here  too  are  the 
very  characters  of  our  everyday  drama,  the 
laborer,  the  employer,  and  the  third  party,  so 
often  left  out  of  the  reckoning,  God.  The 
reader  should  not  brush  aside  the  analogy, 
with  the  impatient  thought  that  there  is  a  wide 
difference  between  that  ancient  civilization 
and  our  own ;  between  the  simple,  pastoral  ex- 
periences of  an  Eastern  sheikh,  and  the  com- 
plex questions  of  today.  For  the  author  of 
this  wonderful  book  was  by  no  means  ignorant 
of  civic  and  industrial  problems  on  a  great 
scale.  He  knew  the  cities  of  Egypt  and  the 
mines  of  Arabia.  From  out  of  the  populous 
city  men  groan,  he  cries  (24:  12,  R.  V.),  and 
the  cry  would  make  a  good  motto  for  a  trade- 
union  journal.  The  context  is  a  vivid  picture 
of  cruel  power  reducing  the  poor  to  their  low- 
est terms.     See  Strahan  on  the  passage,  as  cited 


no     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

below.^  And  the  author  had  felt  the  contrast 
between  this  thronging  life  and  the  utter  deso- 
lation of  the  miner  (28:4). 

"He  sinketh  a  shaft  far  from  the  habitations  of  men, 
he  is  forgotten  of  those  who  walk  above,  he  swingeth 
suspended  afar  from  men." 

I  quote  from  the  version  of  Samuel  Cox 
(London,  1880),  who  adds: 

"these  mines,  with  their  shafts,  working  apparatus  and 
smelting-places,  are  to  be  seen  to  this  day  in  the  very- 
condition  in  which  they  were  left  by  the  Egyptian,  work- 
men four  or  five  thousand  years  ago;  the  very  marks  of 
their  tools  being  so  fresh  and  sharp  in  that  pure  dry 
atmosphere,  that  more  than  one  traveller  has  felt,  while 
looking  at  them,  as  though  the  miners  had  but  knocked 
off  work  for  a  spell,  and  might  come  back  to  it  at  any 
moment." 

I  have  purposely  given  these  details,  in  or- 
der to  show  that  human  nature  is  the  same  in 
all  ages,  and  especially  in  order  to  lift  us  out 
of  our  own  surroundings,  that  we  may  give 
diligent  heed  to  the  great  teaching  of  that 
book.  Job  was  a  capitalist,  an  employer 
of  labor.     When  we  are  reasoning  with  his 

3  The  Book  of  Job  Interpreted,  by  James  Strahan.  Edin- 
burgh, 1913.  (Page  215.)  "Still  another  class  of  unfortunates 
— poor,  scantily-clad  day-laborers,  starving  in  the  midst  of 
plenty,  because  their  rapacious  masters — the  'sweaters'  of  an- 
cient times — refuse,  though  corn  and  oil  and  wine  abound,  to 
give  them  a  living  wage." 


The  Calling  iii 


class,  we  do  well  to  hold  him  up  as  an  ex- 
ample. His  employees  had  a  ''cause,"  and 
dared  to  maintain  it  before  him,  and  when  he 
answered,  they  answered  back,  ''contended" 
with  him.  He  never  "despised"  their  cause 
by  claiming  that  he  had  nothing  to  arbitrate; 
for  he  knew  and  felt  the  force  of  the  rule  of 
three.  "As  my  servants  are  to  their  master, 
so  am  I,  God's  servant,  to  my  master."  And 
then  he  reasoned  a  fortiori,  from  less  to 
greater.  "The  two  ratios  of  this  proportion 
are  vastly  unequal  after  all.  My  laborers  and 
I  are  of  one  blood,  for  God  hath  made  us  so; 
from  the  womb  up,  we  are  measured  by  the 
level  of  a  common  humanity.  But  I  and  my 
Creator!  how  could  I  meet  him  in  judgment 
if  I  had  despised  my  brother  instead  of  being, 
as  I  have  been,  my  brother's  keeper?"  The 
application  to  our  time  does  not  vary  in  prin- 
ciple by  a  hair's  breadth  if  instead  of  a  single 
laborer  it  is  a  committee  of  laborers  who  main- 
tain their  cause.  Every  capitalist  should 
listen  to  the  sublime  thunder-peal  of  another 
great  poet  (Isa.  lo:  1-3)  : 


112     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

*'Woe  unto  them  that  turn  aside  the  needy  from  jus- 
tice, and  rob  the  poor  of  my  people  of  their  right,  that 
widows  may  be  their  spoil  and  that  they  may  make  the 
fatherless  their  prey!  And  what  will  ye  do  in  the  day  of 
visitation,  and  in  the  desolation  which  shall  come  from 
afar?  to  whom  will  ye  flee  for  help?  and  where  will  ye 
leave  your  glory?" 

D.  L.  Moody  said  that  there  was  a  great 
desert  in  the  middle  of  most  people's  Bibles; 
meaning  what  we  call  the  minor  prophets. 
If  those  who  uphold  the  tyranny  of  our  pres- 
ent industrial  order  would  like  to  see  them- 
selves in  a  mirror  and  to  know  what  God 
really  thinks  of  them,  let  them  read  and  pon- 
der those  few  pages. 

We  gain  less,  however,  by  denouncing  men 
who  have  been  caught  in  the  meshes  of  an  evil 
system,  than  by  bringing  the  system  itself  to 
the  touchstone  of  Christ's  teaching,  which  is 
the  standard  in  this  entire  discussion.  The 
system  is  huge  and  hard  and  cold  as  an  ice- 
berg; but  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  will  dis- 
solve it  by  a  single  penetrating  ray. 

"One  Is  your  Master,  even  Christ;  and  all  ye  are 
brethren.'* 

Words  could  not  be  simpler  than  these  that 


The  Calling  113 


were  dropped  into  the  ears  of  a  few  fisher- 
men; but  their  line  is  gone  out  into  all  the 
earth,  and  the  world  is  being  tested  and  trans- 
formed by  them.  The  program  of  Christ,  as 
we  saw  in  Part  I,  is  the  transformation  of  the 
whole  world  by  a  united  brotherhood;  this  is 
the  meaning  of  Christian  unity.  Since  all 
power  in  heaven  and  on  earth  is  given  to 
Christ,  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  his 
kingdom  will  be  dominant.  We  can  speed 
it  on,  if  we  belong  to  the  capitalistic  class,  by 
regarding  ourselves  as  employers  not  of  labor 
but  of  laborers — an  apparently  slight  but 
really  vast  difference.  We  have  the  steward- 
ship not  so  much  of  machines  as  of  men;  and 
just  as  we  should  be  uneasy  if  our  brothers  in 
the  flesh,  our  mothers'  own  children,  were 
working  for  us  at  wages  too  low  to  give  them 
decent  subsistence,  and  were  housed  in  unsani- 
tary tenements;  so,  as  soon  as  our  eyes  are 
opened,  we  cannot  tolerate  such  conditions 
among  these  brothers  in  the  spirit.  At  great 
cost,  if  need  be,  to  ourselves,  we  shall  bear  one 
another's  burdens,  for  by  such  bearing  and 


114     ^^^  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

sharing  we  fulfil  the  law  of  Christ;  and  hereby 
we  know  and  show  that  we  are  his  disciples. 

Now  the  sword  of  the  Son  of  Man  has  two 
edges  (Rev.  i :  i6)  ;  it  is  equally  sharp  against 
unfaithful  employers  and  unfaithful  work- 
men. When  we  reason  with  the  latter  class, 
it  is  important  to  put  them  on  their  guard 
against  such  bitter  criticisms  of  those  more 
favored  in  life  as  will  blind  them  to  the 
finger  of  God  that  points  out  their  own  duty. 
'^How  will  thou  say  to  thy  brother,  Let  me 
pull  out  the  mote  out  of  thine  eye ;  and  behold, 
a  beam  is  in  thine  own  eye?"  Working-men 
will  hasten  to  assure  us  that  the  mote  belongs 
to  them  and  the  beam  to  their  oppressors;  but 
Jesus  intended  each  of  us  to  hold  his  own 
faults  so  close  to  the  eye  of  conscience  that 
they  would  look  larger  than  the  faults  of  his 
neighbors.  Look  at  envy,  for  instance,  which 
should  never  be  confounded  with  emulation, 
its  exact  opposite.  Emulation  is  a  noble 
passion,  since  it  strives  to  excel  by  raising  it- 
self; envy  is  a  malignant  passion,  since  it 
Strives  to  excel  by  pulling  down  others.     It 


The  Calling  T15 


should  suffice  to  call  attention  to  the  singular 
stupidity  of  envy.  Why  should  we  envy  any 
man  his  debts?  Each  dollar  and  each  other 
item  in  the  inventory  of  the  man  wt  envy  is 
simply  an  obligation  to  render  service  to  God 
and  humanity. 

Again,  God  requires  truth  in  the  inward 
parts,  honesty  and  fidelity  in  work.  If  some 
human  organization  requires  dawdling, 
sloppy,  inefficient  work,  if  it  goes  so  far  even 
as  to  counsel  fraud  and  sabotage,  it  takes  no 
great  amount  of  common-sense  to  see  which 
authority  is  superior.  The  portrait  of  that 
private  soldier  who  disobeyed  his  commander 
to  obey  his  king  hangs  in  the  gallery  of  heroes 
(II  Samuel  18:9-12). 

We  may  sympathize  to  the  full  with  the 
hardships  and  sufferings  of  the  toiling  mil- 
lions; but  we  are  never  to  do  evil  that  good 
may  come.  The  manly  way,  Christ's  way,  is 
to  do  right  and  take  the  consequences.  ^^It 
is  never  right  to  do  wrong  and  never  wrong 
to  do  right." 

Such  generalities  may  have  been  all  that 


Ii6     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

Christianity  could  have  contributed  to  the  so- 
lution of  the  labor  problem  a  generation  ago; 
but  meanwhile  the  evils  of  the  whole  indus- 
trial system  have  grown  acute,  and  righteous 
public  sentiment  is  slowly  advancing  to  the 
point  of  determining  to  mend  or  end  it. 
There  can  be  no  question  that  it  is  able  to  do 
either  of  these  things,  when  it  is  sure  which 
is  right;  for  the  Almighty  God  does  not  live 
in  the  sky  but  in  the  hearts  of  his  children; 
and  in  our  age  he  reveals  himself  most  fully 
in  righteous  public  sentiment.  If  those 
whose  chief  end  is  to  maintain  the  claims  of 
either  capital  or  labor  are  shortsighted  enough 
to  antagonize  that  sentiment,  they  are  simply 
sawing  off  the  limb  they  sit  on,  between  them- 
selves and  the  tree.  And  this  they  will  do 
if  they  perpetrate  injustice  while  clamoring 
against  it;  they  should  meditate  on  that  word 
of  Gamaliel :  ^'lest  haply  ye  be  found  even  to 
fight  against  God"  (Acts  5 :  39) .  The  way  to 
fight  with  God  is  to  contend  for  universal 
brotherhood,  for  the  rights  of  man  as  man; 
the  way  to  fight  the  devil's  own  battle  is  to 


The  Calling  117 


try  either  to  crush  out  the  entire  capitalistic 
class,  after  the  program  of  the  mis-called  In- 
dustrial Workers  of  the  World  (for  "work- 
ers'^ read  "warriors")  or  else  to  crush  out  all 
trade  unions  and  labor  federations,  and  thus 
deprive  the  workingmen  of  their  one  chance 
to  rise. 

Plain  words  should  be  spoken  to  a  sluggish 
Christian  public,  whose  indolent  sympathies 
have  gone  too  often  to  the  capitalistic  side  in 
these  industrial  contests  because  the  subject 
has  not  been  thought  through.  The  phrase 
"the  open  shop"  has  a  large  and  liberal  sound; 
"the  closed  shop"  seems  narrow  and  exclusive. 
It  is  proclaimed  as  though  it  were  a  mathe- 
matical certainty  that  any  man  has  the  right 
to  work  for  whom  he  pleases  on  such  condi- 
tions as  both  parties  please  to  make.  Not 
only  is  this  not  axiomatic,  it  is  not  even  true. 
It  is  a  special  case  under  the  larger  untruth 
that  any  man  has  the  right  to  do  what  he 
pleases.  That  is  blasphemy  against  the  king- 
dom of  God,  which  is  a  social  kingdom,  a 
solid,  with  three  dimensions;  first,  no  man  is 


ii8     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

to  live  to  himself;  second,  every  man  is  to  love 
his  neighbor  as  himself;  third,  every  man  is 
to  love  God  with  all  his  heart.  Perfect  lib- 
erty is  only  found  in  perfect  obedience  to 
those  precepts  (see  Ps.  119:  45;  I  Cor.  7:  22). 
Let  us  see  how  this  works  out  in  prac- 
tise. The  memory  of  men  now  living  covers 
almost  the  whole  enormous  industrial  ex- 
pansion caused  by  ever  new  inventions  of 
machinery,  and  an  ever  growing  concentra- 
tion of  capital.  This  development  has  been 
so  sudden  and  so  vast  that  the  great  world  of 
toilers  has  been  caught  between  the  upper 
and  the  nether  mill-stone;  for  whether  busi- 
ness is  carried  on  by  fierce  competitions  or  by 
gentlemen's  agreements,  in  either  case  the 
huge  volume  of  wealth  produced  rolls  stead- 
ily (the  bulk  of  it)  into  the  coffers  of  the 
few  who  direct  the  work  or  invest  their 
capital  in  it,  while  the  army  of  laborers 
who  have  the  larger  share  in  production 
do  not  succeed  in  gaining  a  fair  share  of  the 
product.  I  say  ''the  larger  share"  and  "a 
fair  share"  advisedly,  in  opposition,  first  to 


The  Calling  119 


those  who  claim  that  the  wage-workers  pro- 
duce the  total  product  (for  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  scissor;  it  takes  the  two  blades  to 
cut)  ;  in  opposition,  next,  to  those  who  claim 
that  distribution  is  equitable  as  it  now  is ;  for 
such  are  living  in  a  fool's  paradise,  deaf  to  the 
thunder  that  mutters  all  around  the  horizon. 
Most  men  who  think  as  well  as  feel  perceive 
and  admit  that  the  present  system  or  lack  of 
system  which  has  prevailed  in  the  main  for 
the  last  century  leaves  the  individual  work- 
man helpless.  His  whole  life  is  literally  in 
his  own  hands ;  there  is  but  a  step  between  him 
and  death  every  day;  and  as  he  usually  has 
(and  ought  to  have)  a  family  to  support,  that 
step  involves  their  lives  as  well  as  his  own. 
In  the  old  days  when  a  man  was  jack  at  all 
trades,  he  could  turn  his  hand  to  this  or  that, 
and  eke  out  a  support  somehow.  We  have 
changed  all  that  by  our  intricate  division  of 
labor;  helplessness  is  not  too  strong  a  word  to 
express  the  condition  of  a  laborer  out  of  em- 
ployment. The  sensible  and  hopeful  solution 
is  being  attempted,  all  over  the  world,  slowly 


I20     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

and  on  a  large  scale.  Men  group  together  in 
organizations,  and  seek  to  substitute  collective 
for  individual  bargaining.  Wise  employers 
see  not  only  the  justice  and  fairness,  but  also 
the  good  policy  of  this  plan,  and  are  gradu- 
ally coming  to  adopt  it.  As  a  consequence 
in  many  industries,  wages  are  rising  and  the 
condition  of  workmen  is  improving.  A  little 
steady  thinking  shows  that  this  project  can 
succeed  only  when  the  men  stand  together;  if 
individuals  break  away  and  accept  lower 
wages  or  longer  hours,  healthful  progress  is 
checked. 

On  the  other  hand,  bargaining  is  bargain- 
ing, and  it  sometimes  overreaches  itself.  Just 
as  a  child  tries  to  grasp  more  oranges  than  it 
can  hold  and  loses  them  all,  the  unions  have 
often  put  their  claims  higher  than  business 
will  bear,  and  after  a  stubborn  strike  they 
have  had  to  be  content  with  lower  wages. 
This  was  a  frequent  experience  in  the  past;  so 
frequent  that  the  power  of  capital  was  much 
strengthened  by  these  struggles,  and  wealth 
tended  still  more  rapidly  to  consolidate  in 


The  Calling  121 


fewer  and  fewer  hands.  At  the  present  time, 
organized  labor  is  coming  to  a  clearer  under- 
standing of  what  can  and  what  cannot  be 
obtained;  and  it  is  capital  that  surrenders 
oftenest.  But  the  waste  in  all  these  trials  of 
strength  is  enormous;  it  is  like  nothing  so 
much  as  the  waste  of  war,  to  which  it  is  often 
compared;  and  this  waste  is  so  needless  as  to 
be  truly  lamentable.  For  it  is  as  clear  as  the 
noonday  sun  that  the  best  interests  of  both 
sides  are  served  when  they  help  each  other 
rather  than  when  they  fight  each  other.  No 
reasonable  workman  can  expect  a  man  who 
has  spent  thousands  of  dollars  and  years  of 
time  in  making  his  brains  capable  of  grap- 
pling with  the  intricacies  of  a  great  business 
to  get  less  out  of  the  business  than  he  has  put 
into  it.  It  is  equally  true  that  no  employer 
can  expect  his  men  to  pinch  their  families 
down  to  want  and  suffering  in  the  face  of  the 
abundant  resources  of  America.  If  it  is 
claimed  that  there  is  not  enough  for  all,  the 
claim  cannot  be  allowed  for  a  moment. 
Looking  back  fifty  years,  we  see  that  the 


122     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

wealth  of  America  has  increased  many  times 
faster  than  the  population.  Where  has  this 
wealth  gone?  Partly  to  able-bodied  people 
who  work  neither  with  hands  nor  head;  and 
this  is  all  wrong;  if  any  will  not  work,  neither 
should  he  eat.  Partly  to  faithful  workers  in 
every  calling;  and  this  is  all  right;  the  laborer 
is  worthy  of  his  hire.  But  a  very  large  part 
of  it  has  been  absorbed  by  '^undesirable  citi- 
zens," financial  magnates  and  kings  of  vast 
estates  and  colossal  trusts,  as  unmoved  by  the 
misery  of  their  neighbors  as  Dives  in  the 
parable.  This  evil  will  never  be  settled  until 
it  is  settled  right.  What  has  been  absorbed 
can  be  reabsorbed.  Great  bodies  move 
slowly,  but  the  great  body  of  Americans  have 
become  thoroughly  persuaded  that  though  the 
heavens  fall,  justice  must  be  done  to  all  classes 
in  our  brotherhood,  and  they  will  find  or 
make  a  way  to  secure  it.  A  few  years  of 
equitable  taxation  would  puncture  the  swol- 
len fortunes  and  lift  the  submerged  tenth  out 
of  the  slough  of  despond.  Whether  the  land 
tax,  advocated  so  ably  by  Henry  George,  or 


The  Calling  123 


some  even  more  comprehensive  and  effective 
plan  will  commend  itself  to  our  fellow-coun- 
trymen, who  hold  the  solution  in  their  own 
hands,  time  will  soon  disclose.  Meanwhile, 
the  fact  that  each  of  us  has  a  calling  bears  dis- 
tinctly on  the  problem  before  us. 

For  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  factory 
owners  and  workers  are  alone  concerned;  we 
are  all  in  the  same  body  politic;  if  one  mem- 
ber suffers,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it. 
Nothing  in  America  can  long  resist  the 
aroused  force  of  public  opinion;  even  the 
liquor  traffic,  though  so  strongly  intrenched 
in  a  popular  appetite,  is  losing  ground  every 
year.  The  question  raised  a  few  pages  back, 
''how  can  my  calling  promote  the  kingdom 
of  God?''  we  are  to  answer  by  throwing  our- 
selves heartily  into  the  struggle  for  the  eco- 
nomic enfranchisement  of  our  fellow-men. 
Many  of  them  have  already  won  out  to  a  fair 
degree  of  comfort  in  their  lives  and  homes. 
Others  we  can  cheer  by  our  personal  touch, 
by  making  our  convictions  known,  by  stirring 
up  friends,  by  agitation  through  the  press,  by 


124     ^^^  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

strict  fairness  and  honesty  in  all  our  own  deal- 
ings, and  by  preaching  in  season  and  out  of 
season  the  worth  of  man  as  man.  Most 
Americans  mean  to  do  what  is  right  when 
they  ascertain  it;  and  though  the  problems  of 
society  are  many  and  complicated,  there  is  no 
justification  for  pleading  that  fact  against  the 
plain  duty  of  uniting  all  friends  of  righteous- 
ness in  a  crusade  against  unwholesome  tene- 
ments, starvation  wages,  occupational  diseases, 
child  labor,  and  direful  poverty.  Where 
strife  has  failed,  brotherhood  will  win. 

It  is  only  fair  to  say,  in  concluding  this 
chapter,  that  one  of  the  easiest  things  in  the 
world  would  be  to  compile  long  lists  of  books 
and  articles  advocating  all  sides  of  the  subject 
treated.  The  chief  reason  why  I  do  not  pre- 
sent such  a  bibliography  is  that  I  believe  it 
will  be  of  more  benefit  to  my  readers  to  think 
than  to  cram. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  STATE 

Antaeus,  says  the  fable,  was  a  Libyan  giant, 
offspring  by  Neptune  of  Terra,  the  earth. 
Whenever  he  was  thrown  in  wrestling,  he 
merely  fell  upon  the  bosom  of  his  mother, 
whose  touch  caused  him  to  leap  up  with  fresh 
vigor. 

Each  department  of  human  life  belongs  to 
the  kingdom  of  God.  It  has  sprung  from  his 
creative  fiat,  and  being  renewed  by  his  con- 
tinual Providence,  it  is  invincible  to  all  its 
foes ;  against  whom  there  is  a  common  talis- 
man for  the  Home,  the  School,  the  Calling, 
the  State: — '^if  it  be  of  God,  ye  cannot  over- 
throw it." 

The  State  is  of  God.  We  distinguish  be- 
tween the  State  and  the  administration,  which 
often    misrepresents    it    even    to    caricature. 

125 


126     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

The  administration  is  a  tangible  thing;  the 
State  is  a  spiritual  thing.  Governments  de- 
rive their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed,  whenever  the  voice  of  the  people 
is  the  voice  of  God;  for  justice  is  his  voice, 
and  (notwithstanding  the  abuse  of  this  Scrip- 
ture) the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God. 
The  mediaeval  notion  that  the  ruler  is  the 
State  {Vetat,  c'est  moif)  is  being  shattered 
into  fragments  by  the  terrible  war  in  Europe. 
The  so-called  great  powers  have  massed 
against  each  other  huge  murderous  armies 

"disgorging  foul 
Their  devilish  glut,  chained  thunderbolts  and  hail 
Of   iron   globes."      (Paradise   Lost,   VI   588-590.) 

What  they  cannot  destroy  is  the  State. 
What  they  will  probably  destroy  is  autocracy. 
Never  was  there  a  clearer  case  in  history  of 
vaulting  ambition  overleaping  itself.  The 
enormous  cruelty,  together  with  the  shocking 
futility,  of  these  sacrifices  to  Moloch,  can 
hardly  fail  to  work  out  the  deliverance  of  hu- 
manity from  the  nightmare  of  war.  God 
grant   it   may   be   soon!     I    make    no    claim 


The  State  127 


to  the  gift  of  prophecy,  but  I  was  glad  to 
note  at  the  outset  of  the  struggle  the  drift  of 
thoughtful  minds  toward  the  conclusion  that 
alike  in  Russia,  Austria,  and  Germany,  the 
pyramid  of  government,  which  has  been  anx- 
iously balanced  upon  its  point  from  time  im- 
memorial, is  at  last  to  be  '^broad  based  upon 
the  people's  will." 

"One  probability  stands  out  so  clearly  as  almost  to 
wear  the  guise  of  a  certainty.  It  is  that  this  war  is  to  be 
followed  by  immense  popular  upheavals.  These  will  take 
the  form  of  determined  protests  against  militarism,  and 
also  against  autocratic  government.  The  vast,  half  artic- 
ulate masses  will  no  longer  consent  to  be  thought  of  as 
merely  food  for  cannon  whenever  their  besotted  rulers  give 
the  signal  for  carnage." — New  York  Evening  Post, 
August  13,  1914. 

*'As  long  as  any  nation  or  any  sovereign  in  Europe  re- 
tains the  power  or  the  will  to  devastate  an  unhappy  neigh- 
bor as  Germany  has  done  to  Belgium,  or  to  plunge  a  con- 
tinent into  war  without  warning,  as  Austria  has  done  to 
Europe,  so  long  is  any  peace  in  the  real  sense  of  the  word 
a  social  impossibility.  .  .  . 

This  monstrous  grov/th  of  militarism  must  fall  if  civil- 
ization is  to  endure.  It  is  falling  now,  and  the  more  com- 
plete and  costly  its  death-throes,  and  the  more  of  dynastic 
jealousies  and  'divine'  rights  it  pulls  down  and  buries  with 
it,  the  freer  will  the  field  be  for  the  growth  of  a  real  peace 
which  can  only  have  its  roots  in  the  brotherhood  of  man." 
— The  Churchman,  August  15,  IQH-^ 

1  Twenty-five  years  ago,  Woodrow  Wilson  compressed  these 
doctrines  into  a  sentence  of  six  words:  "Monarchies  exist  only 
by  democratic  consent."     (The  State,  Boston,  1889,  p.  609.)     It 


128     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

However  high  the  probability  of  such  fore- 
casts, we  have  to  admit  that  they  stop  short  of 
certainty.  But  there  is  one  certainty  in  the 
future;  that  the  kingdoms  of  this  w^orld  are 
to  become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord.  That 
abutment  stands  firm,  and  it  indicates  the  di- 
rection of  the  bridge  over  which  civilization 
is  to  pass.  Kings  and  empires  come  and  go, 
but  the  word  of  our  God  shall  stand  forever. 

Now  the  phrase  which  closes  the  quotation 
just  given  from  the  Churchman,  "the  broth- 
erhood of  man,"  is  synonymous  with  "the 
kingdom  of  God,"  as  we  have  seen  in  the  first 
part  of  this  book.  It  follows  that  the  bridge 
which  extends  from  the  point  where  we  now 
stand  to  the  goal  of  history  must  be  built  on 
the  lines  of  universal  brotherhood  if  it  is  to 
connect  with  the  only  pier  that  can  make  it 
secure  at  its  farther  extremity.     To  attempt 

is  remarkable  that  Franz  Oppenheimer's  recent  book  with  the 
same  title  (Indianapolis,  1914),  proceeding  on  wholly  different 
lines,  comes  out  at  so  similar  results.  "The  'State'  of  the  future 
will  be  society  guided  by  self-government"  (p.  275).  "This 
has  been  the  path  of  the  suffering  and  of  the  salvation  oi  hu- 
manity .  .  .  from  war  to  peace,  from  the  hostile  splitting  up 
of  the  hordes  to  the  peaceful  unity  of  mankind,  from  brutality 
to  humanity,  from  the  exploiting  State  of  robbery  to  the  Free- 
men's Citizenship"   (p.  290). 


The  State  129 


its  construction  at  any  other  angle  would  be 
to  commit  the  folly  of  the  man  in  Luke  6 :  49, 
who  without  a  foundation  built  his  house 
upon  the  sand.  The  bridge  of  conquest,  for 
instance,  can  never  reach  the  abutment  of 
God's  consummated  kingdom,  nor  can  the 
bridge  of  tyranny,  or  the  bridge  of  selfish  am- 
bition. It  may  be  objected  that  this  is  to 
paint  the  future  in  the  rainbow  colors  of  what 
we  hope  for,  and  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  evi- 
dence of  what  we  see  all  about  us.  I  grant 
the  force  of  the  objection,  and  admit  that  my 
faith  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the 
evidence  of  things  not  seen.  But  this  is  a 
hard-headed,  common-sense  faith;  the  faith 
that  the  architects  of  the  future  are  not  going 
to  be  such  dunces  as  to  attempt  a  zigzag 
bridge  instead  of  projecting  a  bee  line  to  the 
goal.  This  faith  is  confirmed  by  sighting 
back  along  a  few  prominent  piers  in  the  past 
march  of  civilization.  There  is  Magna 
Charta,  which  lifts  the  meadows  of  Runny- 
mede  higher  than  the  Himalayas.  Never  has 
there  been  since,  and  never  can  there  be  again 


130     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

in  England,  a  King  John  with  his  whims  to 
tilt  against  English  freedom.  ''No  freeman 
shall  be  taken  or  imprisoned,  or  be  disseised 
of  his  freehold,  or  liberties,  or  free  customs, 
or  be  outlawed,  or  exiled,  or  any  otherwise 
destroyed,  nor  will  we  pass  upon  him,  nor 
send  upon  him,  but  by  lawful  judgment  of  his 
peers,  or  by  the  law  of  the  land.  We  will  sell 
to  no  man,  we  will  not  deny  or  delay  to  any 
man,  justice  or  right." 

Four  hundred  years  later  another  compact 
was  struck,  which  exalts  the  Mayflower  till  it 
dominates  all  the  dreadnoughts  of  all  the 
navies.  Mr.  Bancroft  has  something  to  say 
about  that  abutment.^ 

''The  Pilgrims  were  Englishmen,  Protestants,  exiles  for 
religion,  men  disciplined  by  misfortune,  cultivated  by  op- 
portunities of  extensive  observation,  equal  in  rank  as  in 
rights,  and  bound  by  no  code  but  that  of  religion  or  the 
public  will.  .  .  .  They  formed  themselves  into  a  body 
politic  by  a  solemn  voluntary  compact"  (which  he  then 
quotes,  and  proceeds)  : — ''This  instrument  was  signed  by 
the  whole  body  of  men,  forty-one  in  number,  who  with 
their  families  constituted  the  one  hundred,  the  whole 
colony,  the  'proper  democracy'  that  arrived  in  New  Eng- 
land. This  was  the  birth  of  popular  constitutional  liberty. 
The  middle  age  had  been  familiar  with  charters  and  con- 

2  History  of  the  United  States,  I,  308-310. 


The  State  131 


stitutions  but  they  had  been  merely  compacts  for  immuni- 
ties, partial  enfranchisements,  patents  of  nobility,  conces- 
sions of  municipal  privileges,  or  limitations  of  the  sover- 
eign power  in  favor  of  feudal  institutions.  In  the  cabin 
of  the  Mayfloiver,  humanity  recovered  its  rights,  and  in- 
stituted government  on  the  basis  of  'equal  rights'  for  the 
'general  good'." 

In  this  last  sentence,  wny  does  Mr.  Ban- 
croft say  that  humanity  recovered  instead  of 
J/jcovered  its  rights?  For  a  partial  answer, 
we  look  back  thousands  of  years  to  another 
signal  monument  of  history.  Though  so  re- 
mote, it  is  plainly  visible.  It  is  Mount  Sinai 
in  Arabia. 

"For  special  ends,  not  here  necessary  to  detail,  God  pro- 
posed to  be  the  civil  ruler  as  v^rell  as  the  tutelar  Deity  of 
the  Hebrevi^s,  and  was  formally  accepted  as  such  by  the 
popular  voice.  A  constitution  or  platform  of  government 
was  also  proposed  and  formally  adopted,  and  a  solemn  rati- 
fication of  the  whole  and  inauguration  of  the  government 
occurred.  ...  In  this  one  instance  only  has  God  assumed 
such  a  relation.  And  in  this,  he  so  sanctioned  and  re- 
garded popular  rights,  that  he  admitted  the  sovereignty 
of  the  Jewish  people,  and  would  not  himself  take  the  rule 
over  the  nation  except  by  their  express  consent.  Had  the 
nation  refused  to  accept  the  offer,  it  would  have  been  the 
sin  of  ingratitude  and  contempt  of  such  distinguished 
favor,  but  not  the  crime  of  rebellion  against  political  sov- 
ereignty. Here,  a  thousand  years  before  the  time  of  Peri- 
cles, is  the  most  ancient  and  valid  recognition  of  the  rights 
of  popular  freedom.  We  can  better  afford  to  lose  all  the 
examples  of  free  institutions  in  Greece  and  Rome,  than 


132     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

this  one  divine  acknowledgment  of  the  sovereign  right  of 
a  people  to  determine  their  own  form  of  government."  ^ 

Two  points  suffice  to  determine  a  straight 
line,  but  we  have  found  already  five  points  in 
the  same  straight  line  along  the  causeway 
of  progress.  They  are  Sinai,  Runnymede, 
Provincetown,  the  present  moment,  and  the 
great  consummation.  It  must  be  conceded 
that  there  have  been  a  multitude  of  deviations 
from  this  line  of  progress,  for  ^'men  will  not 
go  right  till  they  have  tried  all  possible  ways 
of  going  wrong."  The  causeway  is  washed 
on  either  side  by  a  surging  gulf,  strewn  with 
the  wrecks  of  people  and  peoples  that  have 
built  on  other  foundations,  from  Pharaoh's 
host  to  the  impending  wreck  in  Europe.  But 
the  hour  is  coming  when  even  the  militant 
Germans  will  find  shelter  under  their  own 
true  proverb: 

"Der  gerade  Weg  ist  der  beste." 

We  are  better  able  now  than  before  to  an- 
swer the  question  that  has  been  pressing  upon 
us:   ^What   is   the   State?"     It  is   humanity 

3L.  p.  Hickok,  A  System  of  Moral  Science.     (Boston,  1887.) 


The  State  133 


organized  for  government.  Translated  into 
popular  speech  out  of  Kant's  philosophical 
definition  of  an  organism  (see  page  loi),  the 
State  is  the  brotherhood  of  mankind.  The 
question  what  is  a  State?  requires  a  different 
answer,  a  reference  to  a  division  of  humanity 
into  populations,  each  owning  allegiance  to  a 
central  authority;  or,  as  in  the  United  States, 
to  a  subdivision  of  such  a  division,  for  exam- 
ple, the  State  of  South  Dakota.  There  are 
still  wheels  within  these  wheels,  city  govern- 
ments and  town  governments.  All  these  are 
to  be  considered  as  means  of  grace;  we  are 
concerned  vdth  them  here  in  their  relation  to 
the  kingdom  of  God.  Let  us  begin  with  the 
inner  circle,  municipal  government. 

I  select  for  illustration  two  cities  which  are 
very  far  apart,  while  yet  their  likenesses  are 
as  important  as  their  differences,  the  cities  of 
Jerusalem  and  Philadelphia.  They  are  sep- 
arated, it  is  true,  by  more  than  a  hundred  de- 
grees of  longitude,  but  it  is  latitude  rather 
than  longitude  that  signifies.  Put  them 
equally  far  apart,  one  in  the  arctic  zone,  the 


134     ^^^  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

other  in  the  torrid,  and  we  should  not  think 
of  comparing  them.  As,  however,  there  are 
only  eight  degrees^  difference  of  latitude,  the 
climatic,  conditions  are  similar.  Both  cities 
are  extremely  warm  in  summer;  on  the  other 
hand,  I  have  never  felt  so  raw  a  March  wind 
in  Philadelphia,  as  that  which  penetrated  to 
the  very  marroW  on  the  day  I  left  Jerusalem. 
It  may  be  claimed  that  the  difference  of  ori- 
gin and  character  separates  these  cities  far 
more  effectually  than  that  of  position  on  the 
map. 

"Jerusalem  belongs  to  far  antiquity;  she  lives  on  her 
past  an^d  moulders  within  her  ancient  walls.  Her  own 
people  are  ground  down  in  hopeless  poverty  and  misery, 
under  the  heel  of  an  alien  race  of  conquerors,  who  spurn 
all  rights  but  their  own.  Philadelphia  is  thousands  of 
years  younger,  the  birthplace  of  liberty  and  the  home  of 
freedom,  where  all  men  are  equal;  a  city  of  law  and  or- 
der and  of  the  highest  civilization,  throbbing  with  the 
life  of  to-day,  and  reaching  out  with  hope  to  greet  the 
morrow." 

It  is  evident  that  this  hypothetical  speaker 
has  never  gone  to  Jerusalem.  If  he  had,  he 
would  have  seen  a  modern  city  which  long 
ago  overflowed  its  walls,  and  which  annually 
stretches  out  farther  into  the  open  country;  a 


The  State  135 


city  with  banks  and  hotels,  libraries  and  sci- 
entific institutions;  with  five  post-offices,  and 
twelve  consulates,  and  railroad  and  telegraph 
facilities.  As  to  law  and  order,  is  it  wise  for 
Philadelphia  to  boast  over  other  cities?  Not 
until  time  has  proved  that  the  present  wave  of 
reform  is  more  dependable  than  that  of  1906. 
In  the  matter  of  race  domination,  is  it  seemly 
for  her  to  throw  stones  at  Jerusalem?  Per- 
haps she  would  be  better  employed  in  ponder- 
ing another  of  the  good  books  that  ought  to  be 
better  known:  The  Philadelphia  Negro,  a 
Social  Study,  by  Professor  W.  E.  B.  Dubois.^ 
This  is  a  large  octavo  of  more  than  five  hun- 
dred pages,  a  cool,  scientific  collection  of  facts 
that  cannot  be  contravened,  leading  up  to  the 
inescapable  conclusion:  "The  situation  is  a 
disgrace  to  the  city — a  disgrace  to  its  Chris- 
tianity, to  its  spirit  of  justice,  to  its  common- 
sense.  What  can  be  the  end  of  such  a  policy 
but  increased  crime  and  increased  excuse  for 
crime;  increased  poverty  and  more  reason  to 
be  poor;  increased  political  serfdom  of  the 

*  Published  in  1899  by  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 


136     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

mass  of  black  voters  to  the  bosses  and  rascals 
who  divide  the  spoils?" 

The  last  count  in  that  indictment  has  a  di- 
rect bearing  on  the  subject  of  this  chapter, 
The  State.  Jerusalem  can  teach  us  here,  as 
Job  taught  us  on  the  industrial  question, 
Philadelphia,  it  is  true,  rang  the  bell  v^hich 
proclaimed  liberty  throughout  all  the  land — 
a  direct  corollary  from  the  brotherly  love  of 
her  founder;  but  where  did  she  get  that  prin- 
ciple? It  was  in  the  temple  courts  of  Jeru- 
salem that  a  Great  Prophet  put  forth,  as  the 
core  and  summary  of  all  law  between  man 
and  man,  an  utterance  which  rose  in  the  night 
like  a  silver  star  that  will  never  set: 

''Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

Here  is  the  only,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
perfect,  solution  for  the  political  problems  of 
the  city  and  the  state,  the  nation  and  the 
world.  Deist  though  he  was,  Jefferson  testi- 
fied that  he  derived  his  practical  conceptions 
of  civil  liberty  from  the  actual  working  of  the 
doctrine  of  equal   rights   in   a  little   Baptist 


The  State  137 


church  in  Virginia,  where  all  were  members 
one  of  another. 

We  are  searching,  in  every  case,  not  for  a 
"problem"  but  for  a  help;  a  means  for  the 
diffusion  of  the  gospel  of  brotherhood. 
When  Christianity  was  young,  the  cities  of 
the  Roman  world  were  a  potent  help  to  that 
diffusion.  It  was  a  sound  and  rational  in- 
stinct— not  to  add,  an  inspiration  from  above 
— which  led  Paul  and  his  fellow-apostles  to 
centre  their  efforts  in  the  great  cities,  where 
neighborhood  was  most  manifest,  where  the 
leaven  would  work  most  effectually,  where 
Roman  law  was  supreme,  where  the  civil  pol- 
ity itself  was  often  a  means  of  grace.  Men 
in  our  day  of  like  fidelity  and  equal  concen- 
tration of  purpose,  men  like  General  Booth 
and  Dr.  McAll  and  Jacob  Riis,  who  can  say 
''this  one  thing  I  do,"  have  achieved  results 
not  only  in  penetrating  the  darkness  of  great 
cities  with  the  light  of  love,  but  in  making 
these  very  cities  effective  engines  for  the 
propagation  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

The  principle  being  the  same,  we  can  leap 


138  .  The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

logically  from  the  local  view  to  the  world 
view.  The  voice  from  heaven  that  cried 
when  Jesus  was  born:  "on  earth  peace,  good 
will  toward  men,"  sounded  the  reveille  to  a 
sleeping  world.  The  world  awoke  and 
laughed  the  message  to  scorn.  Governments 
made  themselves  merry  over  the  new  gospel, 
or  killed  and  burned  the  peacemakers.  Both 
the  principle  and  the  policy  of  universal 
peace  were  never  more  scornfully  derided  by 
the  powers  that  hold  the  front  of  the  stage 
than  at  the  present  moment.  ''Look,"  they 
say,  ''at  the  alacrity  with  which  the  multitudes 
who  had  been  declaiming  against  war  sprang 
to  arms  when  the  tocsin  sounded."  True,  but 
the  mills  of  God  grind  slowly!  It  was  with 
reference  to  similar  circumstances  that  our 
Lord  proclaimed,  "the  end  is  not  yet."  Out 
of  the  turmoil  will  emerge  a  new  heaven  and 
a  new  earth.  It  is  impossible  for  the  strong 
man  of  the  parable  to  prevail  against  the 
stronger  than  he;  force  is  not  so  mighty  as 
brotherhood. 


The  State  139 


**A  reborn  race  appears — a  perfect  world — all  joy! 
War,  sorrow,  suffering  gone — the  rank  earth  purged." 

There  have  been  times  when  Christian  civi- 
lization seemed  much  nearer  its  doom  than  it 
seems  in  191 5.  But  when  the  enemy  came  in 
like  a  flood,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  lifted  up  a 
standard  against  him.  If  we  would  accustom 
ourselves  to  walk  by  faith  instead  of  by  sight; 
if  we  truly  believed  in  the  God  who  is  not  in 
the  empty  void  we  call  the  sky,  but  who  moves 
in  a  mysterious  way  through  the  very  heart  of 
mankind,  we  should  feel  no  alarm  at  the  spec- 
tacle of  the  raging  nations.  Rather  should 
we  read  therein  the  speedy  triumph  of  that 
democracy  which  spells  humanity,  and  the 
speedy  overthrow  of  that  fiendishness  which 
thinks  to  settle  truth  and  right  by  human 
slaughter.  We  should  take  the  celestial  view 
of  the  present  distress:  ^Wo  to  the  inhabit- 
ers  of  the  earth  and  of  the  sea!  for  the  devil 
is  come  down  unto  you,  having  great  wrath, 
because  he  knoweth  that  he  hath  but  a  short 
time/'     (Rev.  12:  12.) 

Let  us  boldly  accept  the  challenge  of  the 


140     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

god  Thor,  and  rejoice  in  the  national  democ- 
racy already  achieved  as  an  earnest  and  fore- 
taste of  the  world  democracy  that  is  to  be. 

"For  mankind  are  one  in  spirit  and  an  instinct  bears  along, 
Round  the  earth's  electric  circle,  the  swift  flash  of  right  or 

wrong ; 
Whether  conscious  or  unconscious,  yet  Humanity's  vast 

frame 
Through  its  ocean-sundered  fibres  feels  the  gush  of  joy 

or  shame ; — 
In  the  gain  or  loss  of  one  race,  all  the  rest  have  equal 

claim." 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  BIBLE 

We  pass  from  the  unconventional  means  of 
grace  to  things  more  commonly  considered  to 
be  such  means.     And  first  the  Bible. 

This  is  an  age  that  questions  everything, 
and  nothing  more  freely  and  frequently  than 
the  divine  authority  of  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures. It  cannot  be  denied  that  much  danger 
and  damage  are  incurred  in  connection  with 
the  criticism  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments; 
but  great  will  be  the  astonishment  of  the  peo- 
ple who  commonly  make  this  complaint  when 
they  learn  that  it  is  they,  and  not  the  critics, 
who  are  to  blame,  and  who  are  in  danger  of 
incurring  and  inflicting  the  damage.  Among 
the  best  friends  of  the  Bible  are  its  critics, 
while  those  who  object  to  criticism  are  friends 
well-meaning,  but  injudicious.  Their  error, 
which  resembles  that  of  Uzzah,  is  due  to  one 
or  both  of  two  causes ;  ignorance  of  what  criti- 

141 


142     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

cism  is  and  want  of  acquaintance  with  the 
critics.  Beginning  with  the  latter,  I  present 
a  bit  of  testimony.  It  has  been  my  privilege, 
as  well  as  duty,  to  know  personally  the  lead- 
ing biblical  critics  of  America  for  the  last 
thirty  years,  besides  a  number  who  belong  to 
other  countries.  They  have  no  horns  nor 
hoofs,  but  are  Christian  gentlemen.  The  one 
thing  which  best  characterizes  them  as  a  class 
and  as  individuals  is  their  sincere  devotion  to 
the  truth.  One  of  the  ablest  and  most  level- 
headed of  them,  who  has  lately  gone  to  his 
reward,  I  counted  among  my  warm  friends; 
Professor  Willis  J.  Beecher,  whom  I  have 
mentioned  in  another  connection  (page  42). 
Among  the  reasons  why  our  country  is  not 
likely  to  be  swept  away  by  irreverent  and 
irrational  notions  about  the  Bible,  one  of  the 
chief  is  the  great  bulwark  which  Professor 
Beecher  raised,  in  the  thorough  training  of  a 
whole  generation  of  ministers  and  other  stu- 
dents, by  his  courses  of  biblical  criticism  in 
the  weekly  issues  of  the  Sunday  School  Times. 
That  remark  involves  the  other  count  of  the 


The  Bible  143 


indictment,  ignorance  of  what  criticism  is. 
It  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  commonsense 
judgment,  either  about  the  Bible  or  any  other 
subject.  Critics  come  honestly  to  the  most 
diverse  and  opposite  results,  but  criticism  it- 
self is  a  set  of  processes,  not  of  results;  these 
processes  are  perilous  only  to  those  who  are 
afraid  of  the  truth.  To  illustrate  by  begin- 
ning where  we  are  all  agreed :  the  book  known 
as  the  Bible  did  not,  as  a  book,  come  down  out 
of  heaven.  Moreover,  there  is  no  great  man 
in  the  sky  to  hand  down  even  a  portion  of  it. 
I  remember  well  with  what  a  start  I  once 
awoke  to  realize  the  fact  that  I  no  longer  be- 
lieved that  a  man  named  Moses  climbed  a 
mountain  and  received  directly  from  the 
hands  of  some  one  named  God  two  heavy 
stones,  written  by  the  literal  finger  of  this 
same  God. 

"But  does  not  the  Bible  say,  distinctly  and  emphatically, 
that  the  ten  commandments  were  written  by  the  finger  of 
God?" 

Indeed  it  does;  and  Emerson  says,  as  dis- 
tinctly and  emphatically,  that  the  shot  fired 


144     ^^^  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

at  Concord  was  heard  round  the  world.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  not  even  heard  at 
Winchester,  only  ten  miles  away.  What  is 
true  to  fact  may  be  false  to  truth.  The  em- 
battled farmers  did  make  themselves  heard 
around  the  world,  and  the  ten  commandments 
are  God's  own  law.  Be  on  your  guard 
against  what  Professor  Beecher  calls  "the 
baby-story  theory  of  the  Bible,"  It  con- 
ceives, for  instance,  that  the  Israelites,  when 
they  had  come  out  of  Egypt,  marched  back 
and  forth  for  forty  years  through  a  barren 
desert,  in  solid  column  like  a  Salvation  Army 
regiment,  and  that  they  were  fed  only  on 
bread  from  heaven  with  an  occasional  quail. 
The  truth  probably  is  that  they  were  scattered 
all  over  an  immense  pasture  land,  whereon 
their  cattle  subsisted,  while  they  subsisted  on 
the  flesh  and  milk  of  their  cattle  as  well  as  on 
the  manna ;  the  latter  being  a  sign,  not  a  sine 
qua  non. 

It  should  be  remembered  also  that  the  word 
critic  means  judge,  not  advocate.  Too  many 
would-be  critics  are  judge-advocates,  the  em- 


The  Bible  145 


phasis  falling  on  the  second  word  of  the  com- 
pound. Some  of  them  are  never  so  happy  as 
when  they  think  they  have  put  the  biblical 
writers  ^'in  a  hole,"  by  fathering  upon  them 
the  above  and  similar  baby-story  theories. 
The  writers  of  the  Old  Testament  were 
mostly  prophets  or  men  of  prophetic  spirit. 
They  have  their  own  theory  of  IsraePs  na- 
tional development,  a  theory  which  is  rever- 
ent, consistent,  and  reasonable.  The  judge- 
advocate  school  of  critics  has  an  entirely 
opposite  theory,  which  some  other  critics  con- 
sider irreverent,  inconsistent  and  unreasona- 
ble. The  position  of  the  former  class  of 
critics  should  be  met,  not  by  denouncing  them 
as  atheists  and  casting  them  out  of  the  church, 
but  by  answering  their  arguments,  which  are 
often  strong  as  well  as  plausible. 

One  of  the  neglected  good  books — the  best, 
I  think,  on  this  especial  phase  of  the  question 
— is  called  The  Early  Religion  of  Israel}  A 
singular  "result  of  criticism"  is  that  no  thor- 
ough-going answer  to  it  has  ever  been 
attempted,  so  far  as  I  know. 

^  By  Professor  James  Robertson.    London,  1892. 


146     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

What  now  is  the  Bible?  It  is  so  precious 
that  we  cannot  bear  to  have  it  abused  and 
misrepresented,  as  though  it  were  a  sacred 
fetish,  instead  of  a  living  voice.  The  Bible 
is  a  growth,  a  library.  God  is  in  it  and  man 
is  in  it.  When  its  writers  penned  their  great 
truths,  God  was  not  outside  of  them,  but 
was  closer  than  breathing,  nearer  than  hands 
and  feet;  he  was  in  their  very  minds.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  not  to  be  denied  for  a  moment 
that  God  was  at  the  same  time  infinitely  above 
them.  German  critical  scholarship  has  given 
terse  expression  to  the  need  of  blending  in  one 
the  thought  of  God's  transcendence  and  that 
of  his  immanence;  denying  the  former,  we 
land  in  pantheism;  denying  the  latter,  in 
deism.  The  every-day  Christian  believes  in 
God's  providence,  and  so  is  in  little  danger  of 
deism;  no  more  will  he  forget  the  divine 
transcendence  if  he  prays  every  day:  ^'Our 
Father,  who  art  in  heaven." 

Biblical  criticism,  like  any  other,  is  either 
lower  or  higher.  The  former  has  respect  to 
the  true  reading  of  passages    (for  instance, 


The  Bible  14,7 


John  1:18,  ''the  only-begotten  Son,"  or  ''God 
only-begotten")  ;  the  latter  goes  back  of  the 
text  to  sources  and  circumstances  (for  in- 
stance, what  can  we  learn  about  the  previous 
prevalence  of  the  idea  of  a  divine  begetting?). 
Now  this  last  procedure  belongs  to  the  realm 
of  science,  and  it  need  not  and  should  not  con- 
cern the  average  Christian  at  all.  When  he 
reads  in  Eph.  5 :  2,  "Walk  in  love,  as  Christ 
also  loved  us,  and  gave  himself  for  us,  an 
offering  and  a  sacrifice  to  God  for  a  sweet- 
smelling  savor,"  he  understands  this  call,  and 
resolves  to  follow  Christ  by  walking  in  love, 
even  to  sacrifice.  When  some  higher  critic 
tells  him  that  this  idea  of  a  sweet-smelling 
savor  goes  back  to  the  statement  in  Genesis 
that  Jehovah  smelled  the  sweet  savor  of 
Noah's  offering,  and  that  that  goes  back  to  the 
Babylonian  account  of  the  deluge,  which  re- 
lates that  the  gods  scented  the  sacrifice  and 
came  flocking  around  it  like  flies,  his  indigna- 
tion knows  no  bounds;  he  straightway  pro- 
nounces a  curse  upon  the  higher  critics  and 
all  their  works.     But  that  critic  is  on  a  par 


148     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

with  another,  who  maintains  that  joining  the 
hands  in  marriage  is  a  relic  of  the  savage  cus- 
tom of  seizing  a  wife  from  the  enemy;  and 
he  is  on  a  par  with  still  another,  who  holds 
that  human  love  itself  is  a  development  from 
brute  passion.  The  true  answer  in  each  case 
is,  ^What  of  it?  If  the  flower  grew  out  of 
the  mud,  it  was  born  of  the  sunlight  as  truly." 
It  is  not  the  remote  origin  of  love  but  its  pres- 
ent essence  that  most  concerns  us.  We  know 
that  love  is  life,  and  that  mere  passion  is  the 
death  of  love.  Let  the  sociologists  go  on  in- 
vestigating the  origin  of  marriage,'  while  we 
ever  keep  the  vow  and  covenant  we  have 
truly  made  with  our  wives.  Let  critical  sci- 
ence delve  freely  into  the  dim  traditions  of 
pagan  ceremonies,  while  we  believe  and  are 
sure  that  sacrificial  devotion  cannot  be  ac- 
counted for  by  that  mud ;  hereby  perceive  we 
love,  because  he  laid  down  his  life  for  us. 

We  are  indebted  to  the  so-called  destructive 
criticism  for  destroying  some  religious  cus- 
toms that  were  foolish  or  worse.  It  was  once 
believed — and  there  are  still  many  who  will 


The  Bible  149 


assent  to  the  proposition  if  it  is  stated  in  gen- 
eral terms — that  the  precepts  of  the  Bible  are 
as  binding  on  us  as  they  were  on  those  to 
whom  they  were  first  given.  But  when  we 
begin  to  particularize,  they  draw  back  at 
once.  All  over  Christendom,  two  or  three 
centuries  ago,  the  very  explicit  command, 
*^Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to  live"  was 
obeyed  with  strict  fidelity;  as  a  result,  hun- 
dreds of  innocent  people,  especially  on  the 
continent  of  Europe,  were  executed  without 
mercy.  Their  blood  cried  out  against  this 
barbarity,  but  cried  in  vain  for  many  a  long 
year.  Biblical  criticism  shows  that  that  stat- 
ute has  no  standing  in  our  age. 

Unintentional  cruelty  on  a  small  scale  was 
manifested  by  our  fathers  when  they  steeled 
their  hearts,  and  continued  to  ply  the  rod,  be- 
cause they  had  read  in  the  book  of  Proverbs, 
"Chasten  thy  son  while  there  is  hope,  and  let 
not  thy  soul  spare  for  his  crying."  But  the 
scholarly  critics  who  produced  the  Revised 
Version  give  the  true  translation :  "do  not  set 
thy  heart  upon  his  death."     In  my  boyhood, 


150     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

it  was  a  common  thing  for  a  devout  person  to 
open  the  Bible  at  random,  expecting  to  put 
his  finger  on  a  passage  which  would  bring  a 
special  revelation  to  him.  But  this  is  to  use 
the  Bible  not  as  a  means  of  grace  but  as  a 
game  of  chance.  Akin  to  that  undignified 
searching  of  Scripture,  because  resting  on  the 
same  false  notion  that  all  parts  of  it  are  God's 
message  to  us,  was  the  practise  (still  some- 
what prevalent)  of  reading  the  whole  Bible 
through,  a  chapter  at  a  time,  in  family  wor- 
ship. A  fellow-student,  in  my  college  days, 
gave  an  effectual  illustration  of  the  absurdity 
of  this  custom.  We  were  spending  a  Sunday 
at  a  farm-house  in  the  country,  where  it  was 
the  law  of  the  house  that  each  member  of  the 
family,  including  the  stranger  within  the 
gates,  should  read  in  turn  at  prayers.  The 
regular  progression  had  brought  up  for  that 
day  the  seventh  chapter  of  Numbers,  with  its 
eighty-nine  verses,  giving  twelve  repetitions 
of  the  same  series  of  offerings.  All  these 
were  deliberately  read  through,  and  as  there 
happened   to   be   six   readers,   my   comrade, 


The  Bible  151 


whose  wit  exceeded  his  reverence,  had  to  state 
just  a  dozen  times  that  '^his  offering  was  one 
silver  charger,  the  weight  whereof,"  etc.  He 
improved  the  opportunity  by  putting  an  ac- 
cent of  gentle  surprise  on  the  word  his,  as 
though  each  tribal  chief  had  brought  some- 
thing new. 

But  enough  of  these  examples  of  how  not  to 
use  the  Bible;  one  sees  at  a  glance  that  our 
host  might  easily  have  chosen  a  real  word  of 
God,  that  would  have  been  living  and  power- 
ful in  the  heart  of  that  careless  young  man. 

If  it  be  granted  that  biblical  criticism  may 
be  a  means  of  grace,  it  is  clearer  still  that  the 
Bible  itself  may  be  a  most  powerful  means 
of  grace.^  I  take  for  granted  the  essential 
factor  of  co-operation  on  the  part  of  the  stu- 
dent, for  even  the  Bible  does  not  work  by 
magic;  it  takes  two  to  make  it  work  effectu- 
ally. You  are  to  work  out  your  own  salva- 
tion while  God  is  working  in  you.  No  such 
lazy  method  as  reading  a  chapter  today  and 

2  The  phrase  ''the  Bible  as  a  means  of  grace"  occurs  re- 
peatedly in  Professor  Ladd's  excellent  book,  What  Is  the  Bible? 
(New  York,  1888.) 


1^2     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

forgetting  it  tomorrow,  or  as  reading  here  and 
there  at  random,  putting  Chronicles  on  a  level 
with  John,  will  make  the  Bible  a  powerful 
means  of  grace. 

But  here  I  shall  be  reminded  of  Paul's 
declaration  (II  Tim.  3:  16),  "All  Scripture  is 
given  by  inspiration  of  God."  When  a  man 
quotes  that  passage  as  a  proof-text,  he  is  at- 
tempting to  reason;  it  will  not  do  for  him  to 
deny  this  and  say  he  is  appealing  only  to  faith. 
The  truth  is,  he  advances  two  syllogisms. 
First:  "Whatever  Paul  says  is  so;  Paul  says 
that  all  parts  of  the  Bible  are  given  by  inspi- 
ration of  God;  therefore  they  are."  Second: 
"Whatever  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God  is 
profitable  for  us;  but  we  have  proved  that 
every  part  of  the  Bible  is  so  given;  therefore 
we  shall  be  profited,  whatever  part  we  take." 
The  argument  is  as  full  of  flaws  as  an  tgg  is 
of  meat.  Neglecting  other  fallacies,  note 
that  this  is  what  the  author  of  the  epistle  said; 
Every  God-breathed  writing  is  also  profitable 
for  teaching,  etc.  "First  catch  your  hare"; 
i.  e.,  be  sure  you  have  a  God-breathed  writing 


The  Bible  153 


before  you  draw  inferences  from  it.  An  elo- 
quent barrister  once  exclaimed :  ''You  know, 
gentlemen  of  the  jury,  we  have  the  highest 
authority  for  saying,  All  that  a  man  hath  will 
he  give  for  his  life."  His  opponent  proved 
from  the  second  chapter  of  Job  that  the 
learned  brother's  highest  authority  was  Satan! 
Seriously,  how  can  we  distinguish  what  are 
God's  words  in  the  Bible  from  what  are  not? 
We  cannot  at  all,  in  the  case  of  every  sentence, 
but  nothing  depends  on  such  an  ability.  The 
Bible  is  to  be  taken  not  only  in  homeopathic 
doses  but  in  large  portions,  with  an  appetite 
like  that  for  our  food  (Job  23  :  12) .  Look  at 
this  same  book  of  Job,  where  the  sophistries 
of  the  friends  are  sometimes  met  by  Job's  own 
imprecations  against  God  that  reach  almost  to 
blasphemy.  And  yet  the  great  trend  of  the 
book  is  intensely  religious.  The  average 
Christian  has  not  the  faintest  conception  of  its 
marvellous  power;  not  because  it  is  out  of  his 
reach  but  because  he  has  not  absorbed  it  as  a 
whole.  Even  if  he  never  reads  the  Bible 
through,  he  ought  to  read  the  book  of  Job 


1^4     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

entire  some  Sunday  afternoon.  It  will  haunt 
him  through  the  week,  and  the  next  Sunday 
he  will  read  it  again;  and  after  he  has  read  it 
a  few  times,  no  one  can  persuade  him  that  that 
book  was  not  given  by  inspiration  of  God. 
An  eminent  college  professor  used  to  say  that 
one  play  of  Shakespeare's  read  fifty  times  was 
better  than  the  whole  series  read  once.  I 
verily  believe  that  no  reasonable  being  will 
continue  to  shut  God  out  of  his  life,  when  he 
has  read  the  book  of  Job  fifty  times. 

Pass  from  Job  to  Jeremiah.  The  average 
Christian  calls  him  the  weeping  prophet,  and 
objects  to  ^'jeremiads."  How  far  short  he 
falls  of  appreciating  the  statesmanship  of  that 
man  of  God,  that  tower  of  strength  in  the  day 
of  Jerusalem's  crisis.  One  does  not  need  to 
go  to  the  commentaries  for  this;  it  is  all 
plainly  to  be  read  in  the  book,  the  most  inter- 
esting autobiography  I  know.  All  the  great- 
est patriots  of  history — Dante,  Mazzini, 
Cromwell,  Lafayette,  Washington — would 
rise  up  before  Jeremiah  and  give  him  the 
place  of  honor  in  their  company.     And  how 


The  Bible  155 


the  average  man  misapprehends  the  beautiful 
little  book  of  Jonah ;  making  it  the  subject  of 
unseemly  jests  because  he  is  blind  to  its  mes- 
sage of  divine  grace.  The  very  theme  of  the 
book  is  that  God  loves  the  world;  that  he  is 
patient  and  full  of  compassion,  not  merely  for 
our  set  but  for  them  that  are  far  off.  There 
w^ere  God-breathed  men  before  there  were 
God-breathed  writings. 

If  it  were  possible  to  summon  a  stout- 
hearted unbeliever  into  a  witnessing  assembly, 
comprising  Jeremiah  with  all  the  goodly  fel- 
lowship of  the  prophets,  Paul  with  all  the 
glorious  company  of  the  apostles,  the  authors 
of  the  books  of  Job  and  Jonah  with  all  the 
inspired  writers  of  holy  Scripture,  would  he 
not  yield  to  their  fervent  appeals?  Could  he 
fail  to  accept  their  united  testimony:  'Sve  are 
God's  ambassadors,  as  though  God  did  be- 
seech you  by  us?"  If  he  heeded  them  not, 
neither  would  he  be  persuaded  though  one 
rose  from  the  dead.  And  he  has  them  all  in 
his  own  home.  Suppose,  instead,  that  he  was 
surrounded  by  the  prophets  of  Baal  and  of 


156     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

Mohammed  and  of  Buddha;  what  a  descent!  ^ 
Herein  we  begin  to  perceive  the  unique  maj- 
esty of  the  Bible,  but  only  begin  to  perceive 
it.  We  have  not  yet  made  the  great  ascent  to 
its  loftiest  mountain  peak.  The  bibles  of 
other  religions  have  no  Christ.  The  poet 
Lanier  found  something  to  forgive  in  them 
all,  while  the  music  of  his  fine  alliteration 
lingers  in  our  ears:  "thou  crystal  Christ." 
The  sweetest  message  of  our  Bible  tells  us  that 
God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only 
begotten  Son  to  save  it.  Imagine  every  copy 
of  the  Scriptures  lost  and  all  their  contents 
blotted  out  of  human  memory.  There  is  one 
thing  that  would  not  go,  the  conscience.  A 
good  conscience  is  a  trusty  friend,  but  a  guilty 
conscience  is  the  most  terrible  of  enemies. 
In  the  case  supposed,  we  should  see  a  hapless 
world,  lost  in  sin,  gnawed  by  remorse,  seeking 
deliverance  and  finding  none.  As  surely  as 
our  Father's  name  is  love,  he  would  restore 

2  In  a  company  of  biblical  scholars,  I  heard  a  learned  Arabist 
declare  that  in  all  Mohammedan  literature,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  worthless  and  wicked  parts  of  it,  there  is  not  a  single  moral 
or  spiritual  truth  that  had  not  been  previously  given  in  the 
Bible;  "it  is  all  there,"  he  said. 


The  Bible  157 


what  we  had  lost;  he  would  give  us  back  the 
Bible,  to  reveal  to  our  inmost  hearts  his  Son, 
Jesus  Christ  the  Redeemer,  manifested  to  take 
away  our  sin;  and  the  whole  earth  would  ring 
with  the  chorus,  Hallelujah!  what  a  Saviour! 

Thus  far  in  this  chapter,  we  may  have 
seemed  to  be  turning  aside  from  the  main  goal 
of  the  book,  but  every  step  has  brought  us 
nearer  to  it.  The  meaning  of  Christian 
unity,  and  the  true  formula  for  securing  it, 
are  now  as  clear  as  the  daylight.  For  we  can- 
not be  satisfied  with  any  partial  unity  which 
stops  short  of  our  whole  fallen  race.  To 
quote  again  the  words  of  Bishop  Rhine- 
lander:^  ''always,  and  in  everything,  it  is  fel- 
lowship, or  unity,  that  Christians  seek;  more 
unity,  and  more  fellowship,  because  they  are 
bound  to  be  dissatisfied  till  all  the  race  is  one." 

When  will  the  race  be  one?  When,  and 
only  when,  it  is  one  in  Christ.  This  is  the 
practical  task  before  Christians;  and  a  prac- 
tical way  to  accomplish  it  is  to  make  the  full- 
est possible  use  of  the  life  of  Christ,  for  which 

^  See  p.  68. 


158     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

the  Bible  is  our  only  original  source.  Wher- 
ever that  book  shines  into  the  darkness  of 
heathenism,  Christ  makes  conquests;  some- 
times with,  sometimes  without,  the  voice  of 
the  living  preacher.  The  soul  that  has  been 
groping  in  that  darkness  reads  in  the  new 
book:  "Christ  Jesus  is  made  unto  us  wisdom 
and  righteousness,  sanctification  and  redemp- 
tion." He  tries  it  and  finds  it  true.  He  may 
have  been  a  follower  of  some  ethnic  religion 
that  contained  a  certain  measure  of  wisdom; 
but  redemption  he  never  had  known.  To 
look  into  the  faces  of  a  group  of  Hindus,  a 
little  before  and  a  little  after  they  have  come 
to  Christ,  is  to  see  a  marvellous  transforma- 
tion, a  conclusive  proof  of  the  victory  of  grace. 
God  was  the  author  of  that  grace  and  the 
Bible  was  the  means  of  grace.  It  will  con- 
tinue its  peaceful  and  radical  conquests  until 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world  become  the  king- 
dom of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ.  And  its 
spread  is  intensive  as  well  as  extensive,  per- 
sonal as  truly  as  cosmic.  Not  only  is  the 
world  the  subject  of  redemption  but  the  soul 


The  Bible  159 


is  the  subject  of  redemption.  The  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  like  leaven  as  well  as  like  a  mus- 
tard-seed. The  Bible  says  there  is  a  fullness 
of  the  blessing  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and 
says  it  of  an  individual. 

"All  my  capacious  powers  can  want 
In  thee  doth  richly  meet." 

Besides  the  reading  of  the  Bible  in  large 
portions,  which  I  have  recommended,  it  is  an 
excellent  practice  to  choose  each  morning 
some  pearl  of  great  price  from  the  treasury  of 
the  Word,  and  carry  it  with  you  throughout 
the  busy  day.  The  Bible  will  give  you  steadi- 
ness in  the  nervous  tension  of  work,  courage 
when  the  heart  sinks,  sympathy  when  you  are 
in  danger  of  passing  a  wounded  brother  un- 
heedingly.  If  it  does  not  always  bring  you, 
as  it  brought  Jesus,  deliverance  from  the 
fierce  assaults  of  the  tempter,  still  it  has  a 
word  for  you  even  when  you  stumble  and  fall, 
the  word  of  repentance  and  forgiveness. 

What  the  Bible  will  do  for  you  it  will  do 
for  anybody  and  everybody.  Because  God  is 
in  it,  the  God  who  loves  the  whole  world,  it 


i6o     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

is  bound  to  conquer  the  whole  world.  The 
great  message  of  the  Bible  is  the  faithful  say- 
ing that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to 
save  sinners.  It  is  worthy  of  all  acceptation, 
that  is,  it  ought  to  be  received  by  everybody. 
When  it  is  so  received.  Christian  unity  will  be 
complete. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  LOCAL  CHURCH 

On  the  Isles  of  Shoals,  one  sees  at  intervals 
a  simple  white  post  with  a  wedge-shaped  box 
attached  to  it.  The  eye  that  is  fascinated  by 
the  glories  of  sea  and  shore  on  a  September 
morning  would  hardly  notice  it,  but  for  a 
cluster  of  five  initials  that  stand  for  ^^United 
States  Life  Saving  Station."  We  recall  the 
famous  inscription  on  the  Eddystone  Beacon, 
*^To  give  light  and  to  save  life."  That  is 
what  a  church  of  Jesus  Christ  is  for.  It  is  a 
branch  of  the  true  Israel,  fulfilling  the  proph- 
et's word: 

"For  behold,  darkness  shall  cover  the  earth 
And  thick  darkness  the  people. 
But  the  Lord  shall  arise  upon  thee 
And  his  glory  shall  be  seen  upon  thee. 
And  nations  shall  come  to  thy  light 
And  kings  to  the  brightness  of  thy  rising." 

The  church  exists  not  only  to  give  light  but 
to  save  life.     Life-saving  is  a  lofty  mission, 

i6i 


1 62     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

by  no  means  to  be  restricted  to  the  salvage  of 
wrecks.  It  is  the  business  of  every  church  to 
save  the  whole  life,  from  infancy  to  age;  the 
whole  life,  in  all  its  manifold  powers,  that 
Christ  may  be  all  and  in  all.  The  church 
comes  into  close,  personal  grip  with  its  com- 
munity, and  transforms  it,  by  working  to- 
gether with  God.  There  was  a  time  when 
these  very  islands  were  addicted  to  gross 
crimes  and  horrible  vices. ^  Today  you  could 
not  find  a  more  orderly  community.  The 
stone  church  on  the  summit  of  Star  Island  is 
a  light-house  of  a  higher  type  than  the  gov- 
ernment institution  on  White  Island,  and 
throws  its  beams  much  farther.  The  great 
granite  monument  hard  by  the  church  com- 
memorates the  work  of  a  faithful  pastor. 
Draw  a  line  from  this  point  straight  across  the 
continent  to  California.  If  it  were  not  in- 
vidious to  name  them,  mention  could  be  made 
of  many  a  pioneer  settlement  along  that  line, 
in  the  middle  and  farther  West,  which  began 

1  See  Joseph  Williamson's  History  of  Maine  or  Celia  Thax- 
ter's  Among  the  Isles  of  Shoals. 


The  Local  Church  163 

with  the  devil's  forces  in  full  possession — 
saloons,  brothels,  gambling  dives.  Then 
came  a  little  band  of  Christians  w^ith  their 
brave  sky  pilot,  who  knew  that  Satan's  seat  was 
there,  but  knew  neither  fear  nor  failure.  Not 
as  the  conqueror  comes  they  the  true-hearted 
came.  The  struggle  was  none  the  less  real 
because  it  was  not  a  warlike  clash ;  as  in  Long- 
fellow's ballad,^  it  was  ^'Cross  against  corse- 
let, love  against  hatred."  But  it  is  the  nature 
of  darkness  to  fly  from  the  light;  over  and 
over  again  the  frontier  has  been  redeemed,  the 
spiritual  desert  made  to  blossom  as  the  rose. 
Those  callow  sophomores  and  sophomoric 
professors  who  give  a  superior  smile  when  the 
Christian  church  is  named,  and  think  it  the 
height  of  manliness  to  scoff  at  religion,  should 
study  the  making  of  the  great  West. 

The  local  church  has  many  forms.  It  may 
be  a  little  company  of  Japanese  laborers, 
meeting  together  for  a  service  of  prayer  and 
consecration,  then  going  out  in  sublime  faith 
to  evangelize  an  interior  village  where  Christ 

2  See  p.  30. 


164     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

has  never  been  named.  From  such  a  spirit- 
ual height,  we  descend  through  varying 
grades  of  power,  down  to  some  country 
church  in  America,  with  hardly  faith  enough 
to  keep  up  its  mid-week  meetings,  and  thence 
a  long  way  down  to  the  city  church  on  the 
most  prominent  corner  of  the  residential  dis- 
trict in  Laodicea;  a  church  that  is  strong  in 
the  statistics  of  the  Year  Book  and  in  Phari- 
saic pride.  Not  a  church  in  the  world  is  so 
good  that  it  ought  not  to  be  better,  or  so  bad 
that  it  cannot  be  redeemed. 

What  ^'the  local  church"  would  mean  if 
things  were  as  they  should  be,  is  the  sum  of 
all  the  Christian  forces  in  a  local  region,  a 
parish.  That  is  the  way  Christianity  began; 
for  example,  in  the  two  cities  I  have  named, 
Jerusalem  and  Philadelphia.  The  same  is 
true  of  the  large  city  church  of  which  I  am  a 
member.  For  generations,  it  was  the  only 
church  in  its  community,  the  only  one  in  a 
radius  of  some  miles.  If  the  local  church 
had  always  kept  this  range  of  meaning,  it 
would  be  a  much  more  potent  means  of  grace 


The  Local  Church  165 

among  the  many  that  are  working  together  to 
enhance  the  existent  degree  of  Christian 
unity.^  At  present  there  are  six  churches  in 
our  section  of  the  city,  all  covering  the  same 
territory.  One  of  these  is  regarded  as  hereti- 
cal in  faith  (Unitarian),  another  as  heretical 
in  government  (Papal),  by  each  of  the  other 
five.  But  Christian  Unity  is  growing,  as  fre- 
quent union  services  between  the  ^yq  Prot- 
estant churches  show. 

In  my  church's  original  parish  are  scores  of 
other  churches;  yet  probably  more  than  half 
the  population  of  the  city  never  darken  the 
doors  of  any  kind  of  church.  It  is  evident 
that  here  is  a  fitting  occasion  for  reform 
to  begin,  like  charity,  at  home.  Let  us  make 
a  closer  diagnosis.  The  average  church  in- 
vests, let  us  say,^  $6,500  in  its  plant,  whose 
doors  are  open  for  periods  not  exceeding 
the  equivalent  of  sixty-five  days  out  of  the 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five.  It  takes  forty- 
two  members  of  the  average  church  to  add 
one  new  member  a  year,  and  it  takes  sixty- 

3  See  pp.  58,  68. 

*  These  figures  are  from  D.  C.  Tremaine's  Church  Efficiency, 
New  York,  1911. 


1 66     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

four  such  churches  to  add  one  church  a  year. 
The  entire  gain  in  the  average  church  is  less 
than  three  members  a  year;  a  large  number 
of  churches  regularly  lose  instead  of  gain. 
Of  the  gains,  eighty-two  per  cent,  come  from 
the  Sunday  School;  a  hopeful  fact  until  we 
ascertain  another  fact,  that  only  fifteen  per 
cent,  of  the  Sunday  School  membership  fur- 
nish any  additions  at  all.  What  becomes  of 
the  other  eighty- five  per  cent.?  To  what  pur- 
pose is  this  waste?  It  is  true,  to  be  sure,  that 
the  church  is  doing  other  good  things  besides 
adding  to  its  numbers;  but  its  chief  business, 
according  to  its  charter,  is  to  make  disciples 
(Mat.  28:  19).  If  a  cotton  factory  made  an 
equally  poor  output  of  cotton  cloth,  it  would 
be  cold  comfort  to  the  stockholders  to  add  up 
the  by-products ;  they  would  institute  a  thor- 
ough shake-up  of  methods.  But  when  we 
come  to  these  in  the  case  before  us,  when  we 
pass  from  diagnosis  to  prescription,  the  doc- 
tors differ  widely.  Some  of  the  proposed 
remedies  suggest  the  laboratory  expert  rather 
than  the  experienced  practitioner;  they  are 


The  Local  Church  167 

put  forth  in  general  terms,  whereas  their  effi- 
cacy is  very  restricted  in  extent.  Consider, 
for  example,  the  advice  often  urged  so 
strongly,  that  the  church  building  should  be 
kept  open,  warm,  light,  and  attractive,  every 
night  in  the  year.  ''That  is  when  the  young 
people  are  free;  that  is  when  the  devil  gets 
them;  why  not  beat  him  at  his  own  game? 
If  you  don't  succeed  at  first,  it  only  shows  that 
you  haven't  made  the  counter-attraction 
strong  enough.  No  factory  could  succeed  if 
it  was  closed  five  days  in  six  as  your  cold 
churches  are." 

This  is  fine  laboratory  theory.  Perhaps  it 
will  be  read  with  a  grim  smile  next  winter 
by  some  faithful  country  pastor  who  has  just 
come  home  from  a  parish  visit,  having  driven 
two  miles  in  the  night  through  deep  snow  and 
howling  wind.  He  hears  the  storm  rocking 
the  spire  and  rattling  the  blinds  of  the  little 
church  on  the  hill  above  him,  and  even  if  he 
is  equipped  with  a  telephone,  he  does  not  call 
up  the  sexton  to  ask  why  he  did  not  warm  and 
light  the  church  in  the  hope  of  catching  the 


1 68     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

young  people.  He  turns  to  last  winter's 
diary,  and  easily  counts  on  his  fingers  the 
number  of  nights  when  the  vestry  could  have 
been  filled  with  young  people  by  any  induce- 
ment short  of  a  turkey  supper  or  a  dance; 
either  of  which  would  find  its  more  conveni- 
ent and  appropriate  place  in  the  village  hall. 
Meanwhile  he  is  smiling  again  at  the  utter 
folly  of  saddling  his  people  with  such  a  mon- 
strous expense  as  the  plan  proposes.  It  is  like 
the  favorite  remedies  of  some  other  eminent 
physicians;  hopeless  save  to  the  rich. 

^'But  I,"  exclaims  a  sturdy  revivalist, 
"could  have  filled  that  church  on  the  hill 
whatever  the  conditions;  church  asleep  or 
awake,  weather  cold  or  hot,  storm  or  star- 
light. I  have  had  crowds  in  the  largest  halls 
in  Canada  when  the  mercury  outside  was 
forty  degrees  below  zero,  and  crowds  at  open- 
air  noon  meetings  in  New  Orleans  when  it 
stood  at  a  hundred  in  the  shade." 

This  testimony  affords  a  second  example  of 
the  wrong  strategy  which  would  solve  a  gen- 
eral problem  out  of  a  very  limited  experience. 


The  Local  Church,  169 

It  is  pathetic  to  realize  the  impossibility  of 
convincing  our  egotistical  brother  that  much 
greater  crowds  of  real  Christians  than  he  ever 
assembled  would  go  a  long  distance  out  of 
their  way  to  escape  his  meetings.  His  meth- 
ods are  warmly  commended  by  some  good 
people  and  heartily  abhorred  by  others  just  as 
good.  On  these  lines,  Christian  unity  is  im- 
possible, as  the  science  of  psychology  shows; 
men,  and  even  women,  are  not  all  built  that 
way.  It  is  a  condition  that  confronts  us  and 
not  a  theory.  I  admit  that  many  able  and 
influential  pastors  are  wont  to  urge  upon  all 
churches  the  occasional  employment  of  pro- 
fessional revivalists ;  but  perhaps  they  will  ad- 
mit some  exceptions,  if  they  make  themselves 
familiar  with  the  life-work  of  the  late  Dr. 
Theodore  L.  Cuyler.  His  long  ministry  was 
wonderfully  fruitful  in  the  wise  use  of  evan- 
gelistic methods ;  but  he  was  his  own  evangel- 
ist, and  he  earnestly  enjoined  it  on  each  pastor 
to  do  the  work  of  an  evangelist  and  make  full 
proof  of  his  ministry. 

"The  mission  of  the  Church,"  says  Rev. 


170     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

J.  O.  Ashenhurst,^  ^'is  the  building  of  man- 
hood to  the  glory  of  God,  and  this  cannot  be 
accomplished  if  the  Church  expends  its  ener- 
gies in  periodically  ^getting  up  a  revival.' 
In  order  to  reap  the  full  fruit  of  evangelism, 
the  Church  must  enlist  all  its  members,  in- 
cluding its  latest  converts,  in  helpful  benevo- 
lence, philanthropy  and  reform,  as  well  as 
earnest  Bible  study,  and  prayer-filled  service 
for  the  conversion  of  souls." 

The  sum  of  the  matter  is  that  the  question 
whether  and  when  to  employ  a  professional 
revivalist  is  largely  a  question  of  local  tem- 
perament. 

Books  in  abundance  are  current,  setting 
forth  the  duties  and  responsibilities,  the  perils 
and  bright  hopes,  of  the  local  church,  whether 
in  city  or  country.  A  good  bibliography  is 
given  by  Ernest  E.  Elliott  at  the  close  of  his 
little  brochure.^  From  twelve  to  fifty  vol- 
umes are  mentioned  under  each  of  five  divi- 
sions:    Prayer    and    worship,    Bible    study, 

5  The  Day  of  the  Country  Church,  p.  75.     New  York,  1910. 

6  Making  Good  in  the  Local  Church.    New  York,  1913. 


The  Local  Church  171 

Missions  and  social  service,  Business  effi- 
ciency, Soul-winning  efficiency.  Many  of 
these  writers  in  the  two  departments  of  social 
service  and  soul-winning  lay  stress  on  the 
sociable  atmosphere  of  a  church,  and  espe- 
cially on  the  practise  of  greeting  newcomers 
and  following  them  up.  This  I  regard  as  a 
third  case  of  wrong  strategy,  illustrating  the 
illogical  leap  from  particulars  to  generals. 
Here  is  an  earnest  deacon  who  complains  to 
his  pastor  that  a  certain  prominent  person  has 
left  the  congregation  because  so  few  people 
noticed  him,  and  has  joined  a  neighbor  church 
where  he  will  soon  be  made  a  pillar.  The  two 
officials  concoct  an  appeal  to  the  congregation 
to  be  "sociable"  after  the  next  service  and 
thenceforth.  Neither  of  them  knows  that  an 
equally  prominent  person  attends  their 
church  just  because  he  likes  to  have  strong 
truth  put  before  him  and  then  to  go  quietly 
home  thinking  it  over,  without  being  ever- 
lastingly button-holed  and  diverted  on  the 
way.  He  will  disappear  as  quietly  when  that 
appeal  is  given,  murmuring  to  himself:  "one 


172     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

more  church  of  the  holy  gushers."  Since 
such  opposite  temperaments  really  exist 
among  us,  efforts  for  Christian  unity  must  be 
broad  enough  to  include  both,  and  especially 
to  work  with  power  upon  the  heart  of  the 
deacon  in  question,  till  he  becomes  so  utterly 
free  from  the  spirit  of  rivalry  as  to  rejoice  sin- 
cerely in  each  success  of  his  neighbors,  the 
h.  g.'s.  After  all,  sociability  is  such  awkward 
business  for  some  of  us  that  when  we  attempt 
it  we  are  more  likely  to  repel  than  to  win. 

I  will  mention  only  one  more  of  these  mis- 
taken generalizations.  Nearly  all  the  ''au- 
thorities'^ agree  that  the  way  to  cure  the 
admitted  evil  of  over-churching,  most  disas- 
trous in  small  country  places,  is  by  joining 
two  or  more  weak  churches  into  one  strong 
one,  thus  saving  expense,  developing  energy, 
and  removing  the  reproach  of  the  godless. 
If  we  only  had  some  benevolent  super-pope, 
they  say,  he  could  effect  this  by  edict;  as  it  is, 
we  must  keep  up  our  arguments  and  persua- 
sions until  these  feeble  churches  are  ashamed 
to  stay  apart. 


The  Local  Church  '173- 

The  trouble  with  this  theory  in  many  cases 
is  that  it  forgets  the  peculiar  composition  of 
human  nature,  which  such  efforts  are  apt  to 
rub  the  wrong  way.  My  own  experience  is 
so  slight  that  I  should  not  mention  it  except 
to  ask  if  it  may  not  be  typical.  I  once  became 
pastor  of  a  small  country  church,  from  which 
another  small  church  close  by  had  separated 
many  years  before,  on  a  personal  controversy, 
the  subject  of  which  had  long  since  died.  Six 
days  of  every  week,  the  people  on  both  sides 
mingled  heartily  in  neighborly  ways;  the  sev- 
enth day  they  "worshipped  the  Lord"  in  hos- 
tile bands.  Not  the  ghost  of  a  reason  could 
be  given  for  continuing  this  division.  The 
situation  was  too  absurd  to  be  endured,  and  I 
spent  several  years  (with  the  advice  and  sup- 
port of  eminently  practical  church  leaders 
outside)  in  all  sorts  of  plans  to  change  it  for 
the  better.  Every  such  attempt,  of  w^hatever 
kind,  produced  an  immediate  resurgence  of 
the  old  trouble  and  another  stiffening  of  the 
wall  of  partition.  All  these  efforts  were 
merely  the  beating  of  resistible  waves  against 


174     ^^^  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

an  immovable  iceberg.  I  am  persuaded  that 
what  we  all  ought  to  have  done  was  to  try  to 
live  so  near  the  Lord  Christ  that  the  iceberg 
would  have  been  gently  drawn  into  the  gulf 
stream  of  his  love.  Then  it  would  matter 
little  whether  we  were  two  bands  or  one,  ex- 
ternally. 

It  will  be  wise  now  to  turn  from  methods 
appropriate  to  some  kinds  of  churches  but  not 
to  others,  and  to  consider  briefly  such  as  apply 
to  all,  such  as  are  fitted  to  make  all  of  them 
helpful  means  to  promote  Christian  unity. 

Fixing  the  eye,  then,  as  in  similar  cases,  not 
upon  a  perfect  church  but  upon  a  good  sam- 
ple, we  observe  what  it  is  doing.  Horace 
iBushnell  somewhere  calls  the  Sunday  School 
''the  greatest  work  in  the  world."  The  local 
church  we  are  looking  at  has  a  live  Sunday 
School.  The  Bible  is  its  great  text-book,  and 
whatever  else  is  neglected,  the  spiritual  truths 
of  the  Bible  are  winningly  presented  every 
Sunday,  both  from  the  superintendent's  desk, 
and  in  the  familiar  converse  of  teacher  and 
scholar.     Little  children  and  those  of  older 


The  Local  Church  175 

years  sing  the  great  h^^mns  of  the  ages  and 
learn  the  great  words  of  our  Lord.  They  are 
taught  what  man  is  to  believe  concerning  God 
and  what  duty  God  requires  of  man.  The 
Christian  work  of  fathers  and  mothers  in  the 
home  is  not  supplanted  but  beautifully  sup- 
plemented by  this  Christ-like  agency;  and 
when  there  is  no  Christian  home,  or  an  inef- 
fective one,  the  fish  are  often  caught  in  that 
gospel  net  which  we  call  the  Sunday  School. 
The  Christian  teacher  in  the  day-school  re- 
joices in  the  co-operation  of  her  faithful  Sab- 
bath ally;  the  most  promising  triple  alliance 
on  earth  is  that  between  the  home,  the  school, 
and  the  church,  in  the  field  of  Christian  nur- 
ture. The  sheep  are  shepherded  as  well  as 
the  lambs;  one  of  the  most  hopeful  signs  of 
the  times  is  the  success  that  has  attended 
steady  and  tactful  efforts  to  gather  into  Bible 
classes  the  men  of  the  community  who  had 
neglected  public  worship."^  When  such  a 
Sunday  School  is  out  on  the  frontier,   it  is 

"^  On  this  subject,  see  a  very  helpful  chapter  in  Tremaine,  I.e., 
pp.  86-96. 


176     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

pretty  sure  to  develop  into  a  strong  and  active 
church  of  Christ. 

It  is  simply  axiomatic  that  those  who  eat 
the  same  spiritual  meat  and  drink  the  same 
spiritual  drink  will  grow  up  in  the  unity  of 
the  Spirit;  hence  if  our  generation  bends  its 
energies  to  the  work  of  planting  and  sustain- 
ing more  and  better  Sunday  Schools,  the  next 
generation  will  enter  on  a  new  heritage  of 
Christian  unity. 

Every  good  church,  we  may  be  sure,  is 
preaching  the  sound,  pure  gospel  of  right- 
eousness and  redemption,  through  its  pulpit 
ministries,  and  is  gathering  its  members  in  less 
formal  ways  for  prayer  and  praise  and  Chris- 
tian conference.  Abundant  suggestions  for 
the  betterment  of  all  these  means  of  grace  are 
to  be  found  in  the  standard  books  which  treat 
of  homiletics  and  pastoral  theology.  But,  as 
we  have  already  seen  in  the  chapter  on  the 
home,  the  life  is  more  than  meetings.  The 
demands  of  our  age  give  strong  and  proper 
emphasis  to  the  life  of  the  church  in  the 
world;  its  aggressive  work  for  and  on  human 


The  Local  Church  177 

society.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  this 
department  of  activity  concerns  the  city  and 
not  the  country;  every  church,  of  whatever 
description,  is  called  of  God  to  use  sanctified 
commonsense  as  salt  to  season  its  own  vicinity. 
Take  for  instance  what  looks  like  a  clear  case 
to  the  contrary,  Tremaine's  admirable  chapter 
on  church  advertising  (1.  c.  pages  97-108). 
It  seems  to  be  calculated  only  for  the  latitude 
and  longitude  of  a  large  city — until  you  re- 
flect that  the  smaller  the  hamlet,  the  more 
thoroughly  notices  are  scanned,  even  when 
they  are  only  pasted  on  barn  doors. 

Now  what  is  the  good  church  as  it  faces  the 
world,  the  church  as  a  social  force?  The 
chief  product  of  the  church,  as  of  the  home, 
is  Christian  character,  something  you  can  tie 
to,  something  you  can  build  on  as  on  the  solid 
rock.     Mr.  Ashenhurst  well  says  (1.  c.  page 

33): 

"The  practical  teachings  of  Christianity  applied  to  the 
social  life  of  the  community  require  business  integrity,  edu- 
cation, culture,  courtesy,  neighborliness,  co-operation,  and 
civic  activity." 


178     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 
Again,  page  31: 

"The  Church  assumes  no  temporal  authority  as  lord  of 
the  parish,  but  is  rather  the  heart,  supplying  the  life-blood 
of  the  gospel  to  every  member  (of  the  community),  and 
inspiring  the  activities  of  moral  and  social  progress.  The 
chief  function  of  the  Church  is  to  impress  the  truths  of 
Christianity  upon  the  life  of  the  people  and  to  infuse  the 
principles  of  the  gospel  into  every  popular  movement. 
The  function  of  the  Church  is  inspirational." 

Yes,  It  is  inspirational,  and  we  may  add  that 
the  spirit  which  the  true  church  inspires  is 
that  of  hearty,  universal  brotherhood. 

Conceive  such  a  local  church  as  has  just 
been  described,  and  as  we  all,  I  trust,  have 
known,  and  this  time  suppose  its  locus  to  be 
neither  city  nor  country,  but  a  small  village, 
that  revolves  in  all  its  activities  on  the  axis  of 
a  cotton  factory.  Employers  and  employed 
are  in  harmony.  Every  inhabitant  lives  on 
the  factory,  is  proud  of  it,  sings  its  praises  far 
and  near.  We  climb  a  hill  and  look  down  on 
the  village  at  our  feet.  Here  is  the  huge  mill, 
yonder  the  little  church;  there  the  humble 
parsonage  of  the  Christian  minister,  here  the 
stately  palace  of  the  cotton  king.  Try  now 
to  realize  the  simple  truth,   that  for  every 


The  Local  Church  ijc) 

benefit  that  has  its  source  in  the  factory,  ten 
have  their  source  in  the  church;  nay  more, 
that  taking  them  singly,  each  gift  received 
through  the  hands  of  the  pastor  is  as  much 
superior  to  each  bestowed  by  the  millionaire 
as  character  is  better  than  cotton.  You  will 
be  helped  to  see  this  truth  if  you  simply  imag- 
ine the  civilization  to  be  heathen  instead  of 
Christian.^ 

It  follows  that  the  major  tactics  of  Chris- 
tian unity  are  to  be  found  in  fostering,  puri- 
fying, and  multiplying  everywhere,  churches 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  each  one  the  pillar 
and  ground  of  the  truth,  the  means  of  grace, 
and  the  hope  of  glory. 

8  Cf .  Professor  E.  A.  Park's  great  Convention  Sermon,  "The 
Indebtedness  of  the  State  to  the  Clergy,"  the  first  in  his  volume 
called  Discourses.    Andover,  1885. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH 

If  a  stranger  in  New  York  City,  walking 
with  a  friend  past  a  well-known  building, 
should  inquire,  on  reading  the  words  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association^  *^To  what 
church  does  that  belong?"  the  answer  might 
be  "to  no  church,"  or  "to  all  the  churches," 
or  "to  the  catholic  church."  There  would 
be  a  measure  of  truth  in  either  answer  but  the 
last  would  be  truest.  Observe,  by  the  way, 
that  we  sometimes  diminish  the  size  of  objects 
when  we  begin  their  names  with  capital  let- 
ters. "The  Catholic  Church"  is  a  limited 
company,  while  "the  catholic  church"  is  uni- 
versal. The  same  question  and  answers 
would  apply  to  the  headquarters  of  the 
American  Sunday  School  Union  in  Philadel- 
phia; or  again  to  the  Y.  P.  S.  C.  E.  in  Boston, 
whose  catholicity  appears  already  from  the 

fact  that  its  initials,  like  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  need  no 

i8o 


The  Catholic  Church  i8l 

interpretation.  But  we  cannot  assume  with- 
out challenge  the  meaning  of  the  middle  term, 
*^the  catholic  church." 

In  the  year  1910,  a  Commission  was  ap- 
pointed to  prepare  a  World  Conference  of 
the  Catholic  Church.  It  has  worked  steadily 
ever  since;  its  product  is  large  and  valuable. 
At  a  meeting  of  its  advisory  committee 
(March  12,  1914),  one  of  the  eminent  Bishops 
on  that  committee  advised  his  colleagues  thus: 

*'I  think  we  ought  to  go  right  at  work  and  get  at  a 
rock-bottom  understanding  of  what  the  Church  is."  "If 
we  can  once  get  a  grasp  of  what  we  can  agree  on  as  the 
Church,  I  think  we  can  follow  it  out."  "If  we  can  get 
down  first  that  we  know  ourselves  what  the  Church  is, 
and  begin  to  agree  as  to  what  grace  is,  and  as  to  what  the 
functions  of  the  ministry  are,  ...  we  have  the  basis  on 
which  we  can  stand.  The  difficulty  now  is  the  shifting 
foundation,  and  we  want  to  get  down  deep  at  the  founda- 
tion to  begin  with." 

The  quotations  are  from  page  30  of  the  Com- 
mittee's report,  and  it  appears  from  a  careful 
reading  of  the  whole  report  that  several  more 
years  may  well  be  spent  in  that  special  in- 
vestigation. 

"The  Catholic  Church  comprises  the  whole  company  of 
the  faithful,  who  have  received  the  blessed  sacraments  at 


1 82     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

the  hands  of  consecrated  men,  who  themselves  received 
them  from  others,  reaching  back  in  an  unbroken  chain 
vi^hose  first  link  is  the  holy  apostles  of  our  Lord." 

That  is  one  conception. 

"The  catholic  church  comprises  all  w^ho  follow  Jesus: 
Christ." 

That  is  another  conception;  and  in  this  free 
land  there  is  no  good  reason  why  the  subject 
should  not  be  freely  discussed.  Will  the 
reader  please  be  patient  with  the  destructive 
criticism  which  must  precede  construction? 

The  other  day  I  brought  to  Boston  my 
brother  Lambeth,  who  has  the  cheerful  hope 
of  uniting  Christendom  on  the  famous  quadri- 
lateral— bible,  creeds,  episcopate,  and  sacra- 
ments. As  we  stood  before  the  statue  of 
"Lincoln  striking  the  fetters  from  the  slave," 
I  exclaimed:  "The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  was 
upon  Lincoln  when  he  proclaimed  deliver- 
ance to  the  captives ;  when  he  let  the  oppressed 
go  free  and  brake  every  yoke."  "You  for- 
get," said  Lambeth;  "Lincoln  was  unsound  on 
the  Sacraments."  We  proceeded  to  the  Pub- 
lic Garden,  a  miniature  paradise,  and  with 


The  Catholic  Church  183 

gates,  too,  on  the  east,  on  the  south,  on  the 
west  and  on  the  north.  At  one  of  the  east 
gates,  we  looked  into  the  grave,  sculptured 
face  of  Edward  Everett  Hale.  ^There,"  I 
said,  ^'is  a  beloved  pastor,  who  administered 
the  sacraments  long  and  faithfully  to  young 
and  old.  Multitudes  have  been  led  to  Christ 
by  the  book  entitled  In  His  Name;  the 
hearty  fellowship  of  its  author  in  every  good 
work  is  mirrored  in  the  little  book.  If  lesus 
Came  to  Boston/'  "He  that  is  not  with  me 
is  against  me,"  said  Lambeth;  ^'Hale  op- 
posed the  Historic  Episcopate."  We  walked 
on  to  the  south  gate,  where  the  statue  of 
Charles  Sumner  stands  on  its  pedestal.  "A 
man  after  your  own  heart,"  I  observed;  "fed 
week  by  week  on  the  Episcopal  service  in  his- 
toric King's  Chapel.  Would  that  we  could 
hear  again  that  inspiring  voice,  which  pro- 
claimed liberty  throughout  all  the  land,  to  all 
its  inhabitants,  white  or  black.  Would  that 
we  could  see  again  the  hero,  who  was  such  an 
inspiration  to  humanity."  "Not  to  me,"  said 
Lambeth,  gruffly;  "he  doubted  the  Inspira- 


184     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

tion  of  the  Scriptures."  ''But  yonder,"  I  re- 
plied, pointing  to  a  west  gate,  "is  a  man  who 
had  no  such  doubts.  He  published  eloquent 
tributes  to  the  Bible.  He  was  a  venerated 
preacher,  who  ministered  the  word  and  the 
sacraments  through  a  long  life.  When  there 
were  few  to  defend  the  equal  rights  of  all 
men,  he  never  quailed,  but  blazed  a  path  for 
Sumner  and  Hale  and  Lincoln.  Surely  you 
will  grant  that  the  catholic  church  is  well 
represented  here  by  William  Ellery  Chan- 
ning?"  "Channing!"  cried  Lambeth  in  hor- 
ror, and  I  thought  he  would  have  crossed 
himself;  "why  he  wrote  against  the  Nicene 
Creed!"  Then  we  took  our  way  in  silence 
toward  a  north  gate.  "Here  at  last,"  said  I, 
"is  the  catholic  church  incarnate.  Look  at 
that  figure  of  the  Good  Samaritan.  This  is 
a  monument  to  Doctors  Morton  and  Jackson, 
discoverers  of  ether,  that  boon  to  uncounted 
millions.  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  was  upon 
them,  because  he  anointed  them  to  comfort 
those  that  mourn,  to  give  unto  them  the  oil  of 
joy  for  mourning,  and  a  garment  of  praise  for 


The  Catholic  Church  ^185 

the  spirit  of  heaviness."  '^Morton — Jack- 
son," said  Lambeth  thoughtfully.  "I  must 
look  them  up,  and  I'll  admit  that  they  belong 
in  the  Catholic  Church,  if  I  find  that  they  ac- 
cepted the  Quadrilateral." 

There  are  two  loyal  members  of  the  Church 
of  England,  who  are  public  characters,  and  so 
may  properly  be  used  as  types.  They  live  at 
opposite  ends  of  the  earth;  in  this  case,  how- 
ever, latitude  does  not  count,  for  both  were 
born  in  England  and  graduated  at  Oxford. 
So  far  as  I  know,  they  are  equally  faithful  in 
their  work,  equally  devout,  devoted,  and 
sound  in  the  faith;  but  they  hold  contrary 
views  respecting  the  catholic  church.  Strip- 
ping off  their  titles,  after  the  manner  of  Car- 
lyle  in  Sartor  Resartus,  we  have  remaining 
the  names  of  Wilfred  T.  Grenfell  and  Frank 
Weston.  At  the  sound  of  the  first  name, 
every  reader  smiles  a  happy  smile  and  ex- 
claims: "Ah,  yes!  the  missionary  doctor." 
At  the  risk  of  a  severe  reprimand  from  my  old 
friend  "on  the  Labrador,"  whose  modesty  is 
only  equalled  by  his  merit,  I  shall  have  to  per- 


1 86     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

sist  in  using  his  name  as  a  type.  At  the  sound 
of  the  second  name,  most  readers  give  a  blank, 
inquiring  look.  So  the  title  must  be  restored : 
^'Bishop  of  Zanzibar";  whereupon  a  few 
readers  smile  a  peculiar  smile  and  exclaim: 
"Ah,  yes!  Kikuyu."  To  be  fair  to  both,  we 
should  restore  Dr.  GrenfeU's  title  also, 
C.M.G.  This  means  "Companion  of  the  Or- 
ders of  St.  Michael  and  St.  George,''  a  dis- 
tinction conferred  only  by  the  Sovereign  of 
England,  the  head  of  its  Church,  and  be- 
stowed only  on  men  who  have  been  eminent 
in  the  service  of  humanity.  Dr.  Weston's 
title  came  to  him,  by  tactual  succession,  from 
sundry  ecclesiastics  of  the  Dark  Ages,  and  by 
hypothetical  succession  from  others  still  more 
ancient.  Thus  he  derives  authority  to  sign 
his  name  "F.  Zanzibar."  But  Dr.  Grenfell 
is  a  bishop  too;  a  real  bishop  with  a  small  b} 
A  bishop  is  an  overseer;  and  although  the 
diocese  in  question  is  extensive,  embracing  the 
whole  range  of  the  Labrador  with  the  adja- 
cent coasts  of  Newfoundland,  it  is  faithfully 

iSee  p.  i8o. 


The  Catholic  Church  187 

covered  by  this  watchman  of  the  Good  Shep- 
herd. He  heals  the  sick,  and  binds  up  the 
wounded,  and  preaches  the  glorious  gospel  in 
the  pulpit  and  out,  on  sea  and  land,  and  (be- 
ing an  official  justice)  he  smites  with  the  rod 
of  his  mouth  the  wicked  oppressors,  even  the 
sharpers  and  rum-sellers  who  would  batten  on 
the  weaknesses  or  necessities  of  his  poor  peo- 
ple. The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  him,  and 
great  is  his  reward;  a  hundred  fold  now  in 
this  present  time,  and  in  the  world  to  come  life 
everlasting.  Dr.  Grenfell  is  not  only  a  bishop 
but  a  catholic  (with  a  small  c).  He  always 
communes  as  a  fellow-worker  with  any  one 
who  loves  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whether  it 
be  the  Bishop  of  Uganda  or  the  humblest 
nurse-maid.  Dr.  Weston  is  a  Catholic  (with 
a  large  C),  and  thereby  hangs  the  little  tale  of 
Kikuyu,  a  flourishing  Scotch  missionary  sta- 
tion in  East  Africa.  In  1913  it  held  a  feast 
of  tabernacles,  when  Christians  of  many 
names  warmed  each  other's  hearts,  and  finally 
celebrated  together  the  Lord's  Supper. 
Among   the    celebrants   was    the    Bishop    of 


1 88     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

Uganda.  Ay,  there's  the  rub.  For  this  was 
plainly  uncanonical,  in  the  view  of  the  Head 
Christian  of  Zanzibar;  who  straightway 
posted  to  England,  charged  his  brother  bishop 
with  heresy,  and  began  the  famous  law-case 
of  Z  versus  U,  before  the  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury. ''There  is  no  heresy  as  yet,"  said 
His  Grace.  "Go  thy  way  for  this  time;  when 
the  chief  captains  shall  come,  I  will  know  the 
uttermost  of  your  matter."  But  there  were 
wars  and  rumors  of  wars;  and  nation  rose 
against  nation,  and  the  end  is  not  yet;  perad- 
venture  Kikuyu  shall  be  trodden  down  of  the 
Germans  before  the  end  come. 

Let  us  now  drop  out  of  sight  both  Dr.  Wes- 
ton and  Dr.  Grenfell  as  individuals,  and 
consider  their  types;  which  of  these  two, 
think  you,  was  neighbor  unto  Christian 
Unity? 

The  types  are  extreme ;  may  there  not  be  a 
true  middle  way  between  them?  So  thinks 
our  brother  Arkansas,  Bishop  William  M. 
Brown.^     His  major  premise  is  that  Church 

2  The  Level  Plan  of  Church  Union.     New  York,  1910. 


The  Catholic  Church  189 

Unity  will  come  when  all  bodies  of  Christians 
recognize  each  other  in  perfect  equality;  his 
minor,  that  those  who  hold  the  theory  of  grace 
transmitted  by  apostolic  succession  should  be 
willing  to  bestow  that  grace  freely  on  bishops 
to  be  chosen  by  all  other  bodies;  that  these 
other  bodies  should  consent  to  choose  their 
own  bishops,  and  then  should  freely  receive 
what  is  freely  given.  His  conclusion  is  that 
in  a  single  generation  the  Catholic  Church 
throughout  all  the  world  would  be  a  unit,  and 
then  the  world  would  believe  in  Christ,  ac- 
cording to  John  17:  21.  The  argument  from 
that  text  will  be  noticed  in  another  connection. 
My  only  interest  in  the  catholic  church  is 
in  its  relation  to  God's  kingdom,  as  a  means 
thereto,  like  the  family  or  the  calling.  If  I 
have  read  the  New  "Testament  right,  I  was  a 
bishop  at  divers  times;  if  I  have  misread  it,  I 
am  willing  to  be  set  right.  But  there  are 
two  parts  of  Dr.  Brown's  scheme  that  are  sure 
to  fail.  For  first,  he  expects  to  persuade  the 
Roman  Catholics  to  depose  the  Pope,  in  order 
to  unite  with  other  Christians  in  electing  a 


'190     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

super-Pope.  Now  the  Catholics  will  never 
consent  to  play  Hamlet  with  Hamlet's  part 
left  out.  Unless  we  begin  at  the  bottom,  as  I 
propose,  the  only  way  to  combine  with  them 
is  to  begin  at  the  top,  as  Dr.  Brown  proposes 
to  do,  but  on  the  Lambeth  basis  instead  of  his 
own. 

The  other  unworkable  scheme  of  the 
Bishop  is  his  ^'national  Church"  of  the  United 
States.  In  this  country,  that  adjective  and  that 
noun  do  not  belong  together,  any  more  than 
"blue  death"  or  "holy  war."  The  nation  has 
physical  bounds  which  the  church  will  not 
respect.  A  criminal  breaks  over  the  line  into 
Canada;  unless  his  offence  is  extraditable,  he 
is  secure  from  our  laws.  But  not  from  the 
church,  which  he  has  taken  along  in  the  per- 
son of  his  wife.  She  lays  siege  and  captures 
his  soul  for  Christ  by  the  powers  of  love  and 
sacrifice,  which  have  prevailed  since  the  days 
of  St.  John  and  the  robber.  (I  hope  my 
readers  know  the  beautiful  tale  in  Eusebius.) 

Before  passing  from  criticism  to  construc- 
tion, let  us  turn  once  more  to  Bishop  Rhine- 


The  Catholic  Church  191 

lander,  who  has  compressed  into  half  a  dozen 
syllables  a  watchword  for  Christian  unity  that 
waves  like  Excelsior  before  the  Lord's  host: 
*Uill  all  the  race  is  one/'  Has  he  not,  however, 
put  forth  a  loose  dilemma;  unity  or  union? 
Why  not  try  for  both  though  emphasizing  the 
former?  I  labored  -long  over  the  Bishop's  in- 
genious illustrations  before  I  saw  their  fallacy. 
^^Two  men  together  can  cut  a  tree  down  faster 
than  one  man  can  cut  it  down  alone";  that 
shows  what  we  mean  by  union.  "Branches 
broken  from  a  tree  will  die"*  that  shows  what 
w^e  mean  by  unity.  But  the  illustrations  fail, 
because  the  work  to  which  God  calls  us  is  to 
sow  seed,  and  we  are  one  in  spirit  with  the  seed 
sown,  as  Jesus  declared :  "that  which  is  sown 
.  .  .  these  are  they."  We  should  have  been 
sure,  says  Trench,  to  interpret  the  seed  imper- 
sonally, but  for  Christ's  own  explanation. 
When  the  sower  is  alone,  he  sows  in  faith,  be- 
cause the  life  of  Christ,  which  is  the  unity  of 
the  Spirit,  is  in  him;  and  when  two  or  more 
sow  together,  they  have  precisely  the  same 


192     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

Spirit,  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  them,  both 
to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure.  Their 
Christian  union  is  at  the  same  time,  for  the 
same  reason,  and  to  the  same  degree.  Chris- 
tian unity. 

The  thought  gives  a  natural  transition  to 
the  positive,  constructive  part  of  this  chapter. 
Without  any  claim  to  special  wisdom  on  the 
subject,  I  simply  state  my  own  belief,  and  try 
to  answer  objections  as  they  arise.  ^'Since 
God  is  love,  we  ought  also  to  love  one  an- 
other." ^'The  catholic  church  comprises  all 
who  follow  Jesus  Christ."  No  one,  there- 
fore, is  in  the  catholic  church  unless  he  is 
working  for  Christ;  every  such  worker  is  in 
it;  and  all  who  are  in  it  are  working  together, 
sowing  the  seed  of  the  kingdom.  This  co- 
ordination becomes  more  and  more  manifest 
as  the  tides  of  the  Spirit  lift  men  above  their 
clannishness  and  selfish  isolation.  The  clear- 
est and  at  the  same  time  the  largest  example 
is  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of 
Christ  in  America.  One  who  studies  its  man- 
ifold labors  cannot  but  be  impressed  with  the 


The  Catholic  Church  193 

fact  that  the  Divine  Spirit  is  working  in  it, 
and  that  he  works  in  unity  as  well  as  union. 
There  is  not  the  slightest  authority  there  of 
Church  over  Church,  or  of  all  Churches  over 
one  Church  or  individual.  It  was  the  Spirit 
of  Christian  unity  that  drew  them  together  be- 
fore any  union  was  formed.  The  activity  of 
the  Council  is  greatly  underrated  if  it  is 
thought  to  be  limited  to  its  national  assem- 
blies. One  might  draw  that  wrong  inference 
from  the  name  ^^Council";  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
there  have  been  only  two  such  meetings,  one 
at  Philadelphia  in  1908,  the  other  at  Chicago 
in  191 2.  But  all  through  the  intervening 
years  of  each  quadrennium,  the  Council  is 
busily  at  work,  not  only  counselling,  but  help- 
ing the  weak  to  become  stronger,  and  bring- 
ing the  moral  and  spiritual  power  of  the 
American  churches  to  bear  on  various  prob- 
lems as  they  rise.  This  it  can  fairly  do,  be- 
cause it  represents  at  least  thirty  denomina- 
tions and  more  than  seventeen  millions  of 
Christians.  It  was  this  Council,  for  instance, 
that  called  on  President  Wilson  to  appoint  the 


194     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

day  of  prayer  for  universal  peace,  and  that 
sent  Professors  Mathews  and  Gulick  on  the 
peace  mission  to  Japan.  It  was  this  Council 
that  was  the  organ  of  the  catholic  church 
in  1908,  when  at  its  great  gathering  it  de- 
manded justice  and  equity  between  employ- 
ers and  employed,  pledging  the  churches,  so 
far  as  it  represented  them,  to  stand  for  certain 
definite  things,  like  the  abolition  of  child  la- 
bor and  of  the  sweating  system,  for  ''the  most 
equitable  division  of  the  products  of  industry 
that  can  ultimately  be  devised,"  and  the  secur- 
ing to  every  laborer  of  one  day's  rest  in  seven. 
At  the  session  of  191 2,  these  demands  were  re- 
newed and  others  were  added,  such  as  uniform 
divorce  laws,  the  conservation  of  health,  and 
"the  protection  of  the  individual  and  society 
from  the  social,  economic  and  moral  waste  of 
the  liquor  traffic."  A  very  practical  way  in 
which  the  Council  becomes  a  continuous 
means  of  grace  is  through  the  proffer  of  its 
helpful  advice  when  new  fields  are  to  be  oc- 
cupied, thus  preventing  the  rivalry  of  denom- 
inations, the  overlapping  of  several  churches 


The  Catholic  Church  195 

where  one  is  sufficient,  and  the  far  more  seri- 
ous and  more  prevalent  evil  of  overlooking, 
and  leaving  ungathered,  fields  v^hite  for  the 
harvest.  As  to  the  general  outcome  and 
promise  of  this  movement,  I  quote  the  thought- 
ful words  of  Rev.  James  H.  Garrison,  Chair- 
man of  the  Council's  committee  on  corre- 
spondence. 

"The  value  of  this  Federal  Council  is  not  to  be  measured 
by  the  work  which  it  has  accomplished  and  is  accomplish- 
ing directly,  large  as  it  is,  but  rather  by  the  atmosphere  of 
catholicity  and  fraternity  which  it  is  increasingly  creat- 
ing, in  which  all  its  constituent  bodies  are  enabled  to  carry 
on  their  work  more  effectively,  and  with  greater  and  more 
direct  bearing  on  the  common  interests  of  the  kingdom. 
Religious  leaders  in  all  the  churches  are  coming  to  see 
that  those  w^ho  best  serve  the  kingdom  of  God  best  serve 
their  own  church.  It  is  now  manifest  to  all  that  this 
Federal  Council  is  seeking,  through  the  voluntary  action 
of  its  constituent  bodies,  to  manifest  the  unity  to  which 
we  have  already  attained.  The  fact  that  federation  may 
not  in  our  judgment  fully  meet  the  ideal  of  unity  which 
we  believe  the  New  Testament  teaches,  does  not  furnish 
any  reason  for  withdrawing  from  it  our  approval  and  co- 
operation. God  expects  us  to  use  what  unity  we  have, 
and  it  is  through  the  use  of  that  that  He  is  to  lead  us  into 
a  closer  and  more  perfect  union."  A  further  account  of 
the  Federal  Council  will  doubtless  appear  in  Dr.  Ash- 
worth's  forthcoming  book:  ''The  Union  of  Christian 
Forces  in  America,"  announced  by  the  American  Sunday 
School  Union. 

*'But  how  vague  is  all  this,"  some  one  ob- 


196     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

jects,  ''this  'atmosphere  of  catholicity  and  fra- 
ternity.' There  is  no  clear-cut,  definite  pro- 
gram here.  We  make  no  progress  on  such 
lines  towards  the  One  Universal  Church 
which  is  our  goal.  Where  is  the  head  of  this 
huge  body?" 

"There  is  none  but  Christ,"  I  reply;  "why 
should  there  be?"  This  continual  demand 
for  human  headship  rests  on  a  false  analogy. 
When  Jesus  said  "the  field  is  the  world"  he 
did  not  mean  the  military  field,  though  the 
iBible  sometimes  uses  military  figures.  If  we 
have  foes  to  fight  we  naturally  desiderate  cap- 
tains and  colonels  and  generals.  But  Christ's 
kingdom  is  not  of  this  world.  When  we  find 
that  these  "foes  to  fight"  are  just  brothers  to 
win,  we  proceed  to  win  them  one  by  one,  with- 
out waiting  for  orders  from  any  human  su- 
perior. Nor  did  Jesus  mean,  by  the  field 
which  is  the  world,  the  field  of  business;  this 
detects  the  flaw  in  Bishop  Brown's  parallel. 
Because  the  trend  of  modern  business  reveals 
the  need  of  ever  more  and  higher  grades  of 
supervision  and  superintendence,   he  argues 


The  Catholic  Church  197 

that  the  churches  of  Christ  should  be  similarly 
organized.  But  why?  He  would  group 
them  into  dioceses,  each  with  its  Bishop,  and 
these  into  national  Churches,  each  with  its 
great  Head,  and  all  the  nations  of  earth  into 
one  Catholic  Church,  with  some  colossal  mind 
at  the  top  to  sway  the  whole.  But  why? 
This  looks  more  like  an  inclined  plane  than 
a  level,  but  let  that  pass.  It  may  be  best  for 
human  welfare,  though  I  doubt  it,  that  all  the 
industries  on  our  planet  should  be  swallowed 
up  by  one  gigantic  World  Trust,  but  let  that 
pass  also.  Our  Lord  had  no  such  image  in 
mind  when  he  said:  ^'Go,  sow  the  field, 
which  is  the  world."  We  meet  the  objector's 
question  by  asking:  where  is  the  head  in  a 
field  of  grass?  The  sun  rises  upon  it,  and  a 
million  tiny  blades,  tipped  wath  dew,  shine  in 
its  light.  So  let  us  shine;  you  in  your  small 
corner  and  I  in  mine. 

''Still,"  pursues  the  objector,  "you  ignore 
the  Lord's  sacerdotal  prayer  ih  John  17:21. 
The  world  cannot  be  converted  until  all  the 
people  of  God  are  brought  together  in  one 
body  with  one  spirit;  for  the  very  object  of 


198     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

this  union  is  that  the  world  may  believe  in 
Jesus  Christ." 

Here  we  meet  again  the  bald,  mechanical 
view  of  Scripture,  as  in  the  notion  so  current 
in  the  days  of  our  fathers  that  the  millennium 
cannot  come  until  the  Jews  are  restored  to 
Palestine.  John  17:21  may  well  pray  to  be 
delivered  from  its  friends.  One  scarcely 
reads  a  plea  for  Christian  union  or  unity 
which  is  not  clinched  by  the  argument  just 
given  in  quotation  marks. 

But  when  Jesus  prayed  for  the  eleven  disci- 
ples who  stood  or  knelt  around  him,  and  for 
you  and  me  and  all  Christians,  that  all  might 
be  one,  in  order  that  the  world  might  believe, 
it  was  brotherhood  he  sought;  he  was  not  re- 
questing from  his  Father  some  magical  trans- 
formation in  some  distant  age.  The  prayer 
was  answered  first  at  Pentecost,  when  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  Unity  was  born  in  the  disciples, 
and  the  world  did  believe,  in  three  thousand 
representatives  from  the  four  quarters  thereof. 
Instead  of  eleven  in  unity  there  were  multi- 
tudes.    By  what  means  have  these  multitudes 


The  Catholic  Church  199 

multiplied,  down  through  the  ages  even  to  our 
day,  so  that  now,  in  the  judgment  of  charity, 
we  count  them  by  tens  of  millions?  By  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  love  and  sacrifice,  is  it  not? 
or  is  it  by  canons  and  decrees  of  councils? 
These  last  have  tended  rather  to  strife  and  dis- 
cord than  to  harmony  and  unity.  How  often 
we  hear  pessimistic  churchmen  sigh  for  the 
visible  unity  of  the  age  of  the  great  councils. 
Were  half  the  breath  thus  vainly  spent  de- 
voted to  sincere,  heart-to-heart  grappling 
with  the  great  unchurched.  Christian  unity 
would  advance  by  leaps  and  bounds.  Very 
slight  and  fragile  was  Christian  unity  in  the 
councils  of  Nicaea  and  Ephesus.  Jesus  was  in 
them  not  half  so  manifestly  as  in  the  labors  of 
William  Booth  and  Jerry  McAuley  and  the 
humble  men  and  women  whom  Harold  Beg- 
bie  pictures.  It  is  there  that  the  royal  ban- 
ners forward  go ;  there  we  may  read  the  mean- 
ing of  Christian  unity. 

Take  the  other  side  of  the  question,  for  the 
sake  of  argument,  and  see  where  you  come 
out.     I  was  brought  up  to  believe  that  Roman 


200     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

Catholicism  (popery,  we  called  it)  was  anti- 
christ, the  scarlet  woman,  and  the  man  of  sin, 
all  rolled  into  one.  I  learned  better  when  I 
felt  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  Catholic  washer- 
women, and  in  humble  Catholic  mothers  who 
pray  and  strive  to  lead  their  children  to  the 
Lamb  of  God.  Yet  there  are  still  millions  of 
Protestants  who  share  my  original  sin,  and 
probably  more  millions  over  the  line  who  hate 
us  as  heartily  as  we  ever  hated  them.  They 
are  ready  to  fight  to  the  death  rather  than  join 
their  heretical  enemies.  Are  they  more  likely 
to  be  won  by  what  is  called  a  frontal  attack 
or  by  the  leavening  power  of  love  and  sacri- 
fice? Behind  Catholicism  stands  the  Greek 
Church.  Ask  it  to  forget  its  heroic  past  and 
swallow  filioque!  you  wave  a  red  rag  before  a 
bull.  Attempts  at  external  unity  with  these 
two  Churches  must  not  lose  sight,  by  the  way, 
of  the  fact  that  there  are  fifteen  enormous  can- 
dles in  the  so-called  Holy  Sepulchre,  only  six 
of  which  are  in  charge  of  those  two  churches. 
The  Armenian,  Syrian,  and  Coptic  churches 
are  ''on  the  level,"  with  three  candles  each, 


The  Catholic  Church  201 

while  the  Moslem  guard  makes  strenuous  at- 
tempts to  keep  the  peace  among  them  all.  As 
is  well  known,  a  dispute  between  France  and 
Russia  about  the  ^'holy  places,"  was  the  imme- 
diate cause  of  the  Crimean  war.  Now  sup- 
pose these  ^'Churches"  and  all  the  rest  are 
gathered  by  and  by  into  one  vast  body.  Is 
this  what  the  wicked  world  has  been  waiting 
for?  When  the  daily  papers  of  London,  New 
York,  and  Chicago  shall  announce  in  great 
headlines:  ^'Ecumenical  Ecclesiastical  Un- 
ity Assured,"  then,  as  by  one  consent,  the 
thieves  and  gamblers,  harlots  and  thugs, 
drunkards  and  swindlers,  will  yearn  for  con- 
version, do  you  say?  Why,  they  will  not  even 
know  what  has  happened,  though  they  all 
know  the  Salvation  Army.  If  the  headlines 
are  explained  to  them,  they  will  only  curse  the 
church;  for  it  is  not  Christian  disunity,  but  a 
carnal  appetite,  that  leads  them  astray.  They 
can  be  reclaimed  as  Five  Points  was  re- 
claimed, but  never  by  formal  movements  that 
begin  at  the  top. 

Whenever  our  old  friend  the  pessimist  fixes 


202     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

his  lugubrious  eye  upon  our  unhappy  divi- 
sions, 

"He  turns  of  a  sudden  exceedingly  pale 
And  sets  himself  down  to  weep  and  to  wail."  ^ 

He  might  be  thoroughly  cured  by  putting  him 
at  work  in  the  slums  with  a  noble  Jew  and  a 
godly  Catholic.  For  after  all  he  has  a  heart 
that  would  be  touched  with  the  infirmities  of 
his  brother  Poles  and  Italians  and  Bohemians. 
Ere  long  the  blessed  work  would  engage  all 
his  energies,  and  he  would  become  a  new  man 
in  Christ  Jesus,  feeling  like  Wilberforce  when 
he  gave  this  answer  to  a  pious  friend  who 
asked  "How  is  your  soul  today?"  "I  have 
been  so  absorbed  in  those  poor  Africans  that 
I  had  forgotten  I  had  a  soul."  There  is  a 
rising  tide  of  Christian  unity  which  brings  op- 
timism to  the  faces  of  all  who  are  working  to- 
gether with  Christ.  If  the  natural  tempera- 
ment of  any  such  makes  them  look  on  the  dark 
side,  they  just  look  back  a  little  way — say,  a 
century — at  the  poor  little  fringe  of  Chris- 
tianity, mostly  formal,  which  bordered  then 

1  From  Saxe's  "Pyraraus  and  Thisbe," 


The  Catholic  Church  203 

the  great,  black  mass  of  infidelity  and  hea- 
thenism. Then  they  look  around  the  horizon 
of  the  present,  and  with  the  joyful  cry,  ^Svhat 
hath  God  wrought!"  they  look  off  unto  Jesus, 
and  press  toward  the  mark.  The  catholic 
church  of  today  is  full  of  faith  in  God  and  in 
her  own  great  destiny,  full  of  love  that  never 
faileth,  full  of  hope  in  God's  eternal  promises, 
hope  that  is  as  an  anchor  to  the  soul,  both  sure 
and  steadfast.     Let  Whittier  voice  it  for  us. 

*'In  time  to  be 
Shall  holier  altars  rise  to  Thee — 
Thy  church  our  broad  humanity. 

A  sweeter  song  shall  then  be  heard — 
The  music  of  the  world's  accord, 
Confessing  Christ,  the  inward  Word. 

That  song  shall  swell  from  shore  to  shore, 
One  hope,  one  faith,  one  love  restore 
The  seamless  robe  that  Jesus  wore." 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  KINGDOM 

Line  upon  line  will  prove,  I  trust,  no  vain 
repetition ;  for  questions  that  are  sure  to  come 
may  as  well  be  anticipated. 

"What  is  your  program?  what  would  you  have 
us  do?" 

Reply:  Do  all  the  good  you  can,  and  don't  make  any 
fuss  about  it  (see  page  73).  Make  two  blades 
of  grass  grow  where  one  grew  before  (see  page 
197). 


''But  what  outlook  for  the  future  have  we,  un- 
less we  work  together  under  common  super- 
vision '. 


?" 


Reply:  Leave  the  future  to  God.  You  are  looking  in 
the  wrong  direction.  Look  back  a  hundred 
years  (page  202). 

"But  where  there  is  such   diversity  of  doctrine, 
the  church  cannot  give  a  united  testimony." 

Reply:     What  of  it?     If   any  man  willeth   to   do   His 
will,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine.     As  Theo- 
dore  Roosevelt  has  reminded  us,  that  proposi- 
tion is  not  reversible. 
204 


The  Kingdom  205 


"But  what  is  'the  meaning  of  Christian  unity' 
when  Christians  go  fifty  different  ways  and  do 
fifty  different  things?" 

Reply:     That  is  one  of  the  subjects  of  this  chapter. 

The  catholic  church  is  large  and  potent,  but 
it  is  only  one  of  many  provinces  of  the  king- 
dom of  God.  Not  a  sparrow  falls  without 
our  Father;  and  it  makes  a  decided  difference 
to  the  kingdom  of  God  whether  the  sparrow 
falls  from  old  age  or  from  a  cruel  boy's  gun. 
The  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to 
Animals  is  not  a  church;  probably  many  who 
are  active  in  its  ranks  are  indifferent  or  hostile 
to  the  church;  but  the  new  spirit  which  the 
Society  is  infusing  into  the  rising  generation 
of  American  children  is  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
and  so  the  Society  belongs  in  his  kingdom. 
There  is  in  some  minds,  I  grant,  a  confusion 
of  terms,  by  which  the  word  Church  (with  a 
large  C)  is  stretched  to  cover  all  good  things 
and  all  good  people,  even  though  the  latter, 
who  presumably  know  their  own  minds,  pro- 
test against  the  classification.  But  no  good 
thing  or  person  is  outside  of  the  kingdom. 


2o6     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

As  one  approaches  the  great  metropolis,  he 
observes  that  a  group  of  its  most  prominent 
and  lofty  buildings  are  devoted  to  that  factor 
of  civilization  which  v^e  call,  for  want  of  a 
better  name,  the  daily  press.  We  need  not 
look  back  a  century  to  find  a  time  when  such 
journals  were  cynically,  and  even  bitterly, 
averse  to  anything  Christian;  one  of  the  chief 
of  them  was  constantly  called  ''The  Satanic." 
A  large  part  of  their  revenues  came  from  vi- 
cious sources;  virtue  and  religion  were  treated 
either  in  a  sneering  or  a  patronizing  tone. 
Something  has  wrought  such  a  change  that  at 
present  one  of  the  most  powerful  agents  for 
the  uplift  of  the  community  and  the  world  is 
the  daily  press.  As  a  rule,  with  few  excep- 
tions, it  stands  for  clean  politics  and  human 
welfare.  It  is  not  the  church,  nor  any  part  of 
it;  the  church  is  a  highly  efficient  organ  of  the 
kingdom — it  is  no  disparagement  of  the 
church  to  call  it  a  conventional  means  of 
grace — ;  the  press,  like  the  school,  is  an  uncon- 
ventional means  of  grace,  and  it  also  belongs 
to  the  kingdom.     We  visit  Printing  House 


The  Kingdom  207 


Square,  and  then  in  succession  a  City  Hall,  an 
art  museum,  a  university,  a  hospital,  an  acad- 
emy of  music,  a  play-ground,  a  bank,  a  market, 
a  railroad.  We  remember  (see  page  x)  that 
Christ  is  to  reign  in  politics,  in  art,  in  litera- 
ture, in  science,  in  commerce,  etc.  To  per- 
ceive the  connection  of  each  of  the  objects 
visited  with  God's  kingdom  is  a  matter  which 
may  be  left,  for  the  most  part,  to  the  reader's 
own  intelligence.  Lest  that  should  fail  in  the 
case  of  the  last-named  object,  the  railroad,  I 
call  attention  to  the  part  played  in  the  early 
history  of  Christianity  by  the  great  Roman 
roads;  over  which  the  new  religion  spread  so 
swiftly  that  all  Christian  authorities  on  that 
period  agree  in  admiring  the  Providence  that 
used  these  hostile  powers  to  build  such  means 
of  grace.  Whenever  the  legions  travelled 
along  them,  under  orders  to  persecute  the 
church.  He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  cried: 
^'Shall  the  axe  boast  itself  against  him  that 
heweth  therewith?"  But  far  more  swiftly,  in 
this  our  day,  the  kingdom  grows  along  the 
steam  roads  and  the  electric  roads,  while  the 


2o8     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

telegraph  is  what  Bushnell  called  it,  a  road 
for  thought.^  Of  course  it  must  be  conceded 
that  every  one  of  the  agencies  we  are  con- 
sidering is  religiously  indifferent,  in  itself.  A 
railroad,  an  art  museum,  a  university,  may 
sow  tares  instead  of  wheat.  But  the  point  to 
be  insisted  on  is  that,  on  the  great  whole, 
Christ's  kingdom  gains  on  the  devil's,  in  each 
department  of  human  activity;  the  stars  in 
their  courses  fight  for  Deborah,  not  for  Sisera. 
This  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of  the  daily 
press,  and  it  is  readily  shown  in  every  case. 

If  ever  philanthropy  could  have  been  di- 
vorced from  Christianity,  it  would  have  been 
so  within  the  massive  walls  which  Stephen 
Girard  erected  as  a  castle  to  shield  his  or- 
phans from  the  least  infection  of  the  faith  he 
hated.  Strange  that  so  shrewd  a  bargainer, 
who  strictly  forbade  the  entrance  of  any 
clergyman  to  his  college  grounds,  should  have 
supposed  that  the  porter  could  always  distin- 
guish a  minister  by  his  garb,  or  that  honorable 

1  The  whole  essay  on  Roads  in  his  Work  and  Play  is  well 
worth  reading  still. 


The  Kingdom  209 


ministers,  in  all  time  to  come,  would  be  aware 
of  his  absurd  injunction.  Strange  that  so 
keen  an  intellect  failed  to  perceive  that  walls 
are  no  barrier  to  the  wind  that  bloweth  where 
it  listeth,  or  to  the  Christian  Spirit  which 
breathes  through  a  thousand  unconscious 
agencies  in  every  Christian  city.  The  fact 
which  forms  a  main  contention  of  this  book, 
that  Christianity  is  spirit  and  not  form  (see 
pages  v-xii),  is  well  illustrated  by  Webster's 
famous  argument  in  the  Girard  College  Will 
case. 

Let  us  now  leave  the  fringes  of  the  subject 
of  this  chapter  and  penetrate  to  the  heart  of 
it.  Here,  as  well  as  anywhere,  we  may  ex- 
amine the  charge  (see  page  62)  that  we  mis- 
apprehend totally  what  Jesus  meant  by  the 
kingdom  of  God,  which  was  not  a  spiritual 
power,  eternal  and  invisible,  but  a  very  defi- 
nite earthly  conception.  The  Messianic  hope 
which  he  taught  w^as  the  hope,  it  is  said,  of  an 
apocalypse,  or  millennium;  the  conviction  that 
Israel,  beneath  Messiah's  sway,  would  domi- 
nate the  nations,  as  in  the  glorious  days  of 


2IO     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

David  and  Solomon,  and  that  rebellious  sub- 
jects would  be  cut  off  by  the  wrath  of  God  re- 
vealed in  fire  from  heaven.  Then  would  the 
end  come.  With  all  deference  to  the  able 
scholars  who  hold  this  opinion,  it  is  of  a  piece 
with  such  investigations  as  we  noted  on  pages 
147,  148,  and  the  proper  answer,  here  as  there, 
is  'What  of  it?"  We  all  know  that  the  blessed 
kingdom  which  is  now  illuminating  and  ele- 
vating the  world  is  the  kingdom  of  love  and 
peace;  we  all  feel,  this  year,  more  strongly 
than  mankind  has  ever  felt  before,  the  vivid 
contrast  between  that  kingdom  and  the  king- 
dom of  force  and  violence.  The  former  in- 
carnates the  spirit  of  Jesus,  which  is  the  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice;  the  latter  the  spirit  of  Nietz- 
sche, which  sacrifices  others  to  self.  We  be- 
lieve, to  be  sure,  in  a  final  consummation; 
even  science  shows  that  this  old  earth  is  not  to 
go  on  forever  as  it  is;  but  the  kingdom  which 
Jesus  taught  us  to  pray  for  is  the  transforma- 
tion of  the  spirit  of  earth  into  the  spirit  of 
heaven  (see  page  15).  If  there  ever  was  an- 
other Jesus,  who  was  so  ignorant  as  to  sup- 


The  Kingdom  21 1 


pose  that  the  world,  apart  from  a  little  rem- 
nant, was  to  be  conquered  by  force,  subdued 
by  a  stroke  of  almightiness,  this  is  not  the 
Christ  whom  we  revere  and  whom  we  strive 
to  follow;  our  Jesus  Christ  brings  a  gospel  for 
all  mankind,  and  sets  the  round  world  to  sing- 
ing: Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth 
peace,  good  will  to  men.  He  is  the  only  be- 
gotten Son  of  the  God  of  love,  and  his  king- 
dom is  the  kingdom  of  love  that  never  faileth. 

The  reader  who  may  object  to  so  dogmatic 
a  pronouncement  is  invited  to  study  the  mas- 
terly lectures  of  Professor  Samuel  Harris,^ 
especially  the  chapter  which  contrasts  the  true 
idea  of  the  kingdom  with  millenarianism. 

The  maxim  that  nothing  succeeds  like  suc- 
cess is  often  used  in  the  interest  of  Satan's 
kingdom;  but  it  applies  still  more  truly  to  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Whether  you  look  at  it 
lengthwise,  as  it  spreads  through  history,  or 
breadthwise,  as  it  spreads  over  the  earth  today, 
herein  is  a  marvellous  thing,  that  there  should 
be  such  power  in  a  mustard  seed  that  the  least 

2  The  Kingdom  of  Christ  on  Earth.     (Andover,  1874.) 


212     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

of  all  herbs  should  supplant  the  cedars  of  Leb- 
anon, such  power  in  a  bit  of  leaven  that  the 
quiet  fermentation  of  the  gospel  should  go  on 
transforming  the  laws  and  customs,  the  busi- 
ness and  fashions,  of  this  old,  wicked  world. 
It  is  the  Lord's  doing;  it  is  his  kingdom. 

Now  and  then,  something  of  this  process 
becomes  visible  to  the  naked  eye.  Lo,  these 
are  parts  of  his  ways,  but  how  little  a  portion 
is  heard  of  him;  but  the  thunder  of  his  power 
who  can  understand?  In  the  previous  chap- 
ter, we  looked  in  upon  the  revolving  wheels 
of  one  of  these  divine  factories,  the  Federal 
Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  Amer- 
ica. Another  such,  of  still  wider  scope,  is  the 
Edinburgh  Missionary  Conference.  I  say  is, 
rather  than  was,  for  like  the  Federal  Council, 
it  has  provided  for  the  perpetuation  of  its 
Christlike  work.  Its  transactions  are  open  to 
all,  through  the  nine  volumes  it  issued,^  eight 
of  which  give  eight  elaborate  reports,  which 
had  been  in  preparation  for  two  years  by  most 

s  World   Mission   Conference.    Reports   of  the   Commissions. 
New  York,  1910. 


The  Kingdom  213 


fitly  chosen  men  all  over  the  world,  on  such 
themes  as  ^^Carrying  the  gospel  to  all  the  non- 
Christian  world,"  ^'Missions  and  Govern- 
ments," ^'Co-operation  and  the  promotion  of 
Unity,"  ^The  Home  Base  of  Missions,"  while 
the  ninth  presents  a  brief  history  of  the  Con- 
ference, with  its  official  records  and  the  ad- 
dresses given  before  it.  The  more  thor- 
oughly I  study  those  reports,  the  more  my  con- 
viction grows  that  this  body — though  without 
the  shadow  of  a  shade  of  authority — was  the 
most  truly  Ecumenical  Council  that  the  king- 
dom of  God  on  earth  has  ever  known.  The 
report  on  Co-operation  and  Unity,  and  the  dis- 
cussion that  followed,  revealed  many  gratify- 
ing examples  of  concord  across  denomina- 
tional lines.  It  would  be  like  the  gracious 
Providence  of  our  Father  if  those  heathen  na- 
tions who  have  received  the  gospel  from  us 
should  teach  their  teachers  the  meaning  of 
Christian  unity.  Let  us  be  thankful  that 
other  missionary  Conferences  of  this  kind  are 
in  store  for  the  future.  For  my  part,  I  see 
not  how  a  world  Conference  resting  on  the 


214     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

principle  of  authority  could  be  convened, 
without  that  surrender  of  our  dearly  bought 
freedom  against  which  Paul  warned  us,  say- 
ing: ''Stand  fast  therefore  in  the  liberty 
wherewith  Christ  hath  made  us  free,  and  be 
not  entangled  again  in  the  yoke  of  bondage." 
There  is  a  marked  resemblance  between  the 
essential  aim  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches  of  Christ  in  America,  as  Mr.  Gar- 
rison phrased  it  (see  page  195),  and  the  mes- 
sage of  Mr.  Roosevelt  to  the  Edinburgh  Con- 
ference, as  follows: 

"I  believe  that  unity  in  a  spirit  of  Christian  brotherhood 
for  such  broad  Christian  work  will  tend,  not  to  do  away 
with  differences  of  doctrine,  but  to  prevent  us  from  laying 
too  much  stress  on  the  differences  of  doctrine.  ...  If  only 
we  can  make  up  our  minds  to  work  together  with  earnest 
sincerity  for  the  common  good  we  shall  find  that  doc- 
trinal differences  In  no  way  interfere  with  our  doing  this 
work." 

Although  the  Conference  was  strictly  a 
church  body,  it  went  outside  the  pale  more 
than  once  to  discuss  questions  belonging  to  the 
wider  aspects  of  the  kingdom.  Thus  on  the 
day  devoted  to  ''Missions  and  Governments," 
when  the  horrible  atrocities  of  the  Congo  rub- 


The  Kingdom  215 


ber  trade  were  considered,  a  few  judicial 
words  from  the  President,  Lord  Balfour  of 
Burleigh,  evoked  from  every  quarter  the  most 
spontaneous  and  tremendous  applause  of  the 
entire  eight  days.     The  words  were  these: 

'You  will,  I  hope,  leave  behind  you,  as  is  suggested  in 
the  Report,  some  permanent  body  which  will  speak  for 
you,  which  will  hear  what  you  have  to  say  to  it,  will  sift 
it  in  a  sympathetic  and  straightforward  manner,  and  hav- 
ing itself  attained  to  the  truth,  if  the  truth  is  against  the 
action  of  the  Government,  will,  with  one  voice,  leave  the 
Government  which  is  concerned  no  peace  till  it  gets 
reform." 

Exactly  relevant  to  our  subject  is  the  inter- 
pretation of  that  storm  of  cheers  by  Dr.  Gaird- 
ner.'* 

"It  was  as  though  a  whole  society  of  world-servants 
.  .  .  were  demanding  to  be  given  an  articulate  voice;  a 
voice  with  which  to  make  known  its  just  desires  and  its 
just  complaints,  and  with  which,  if  it  please  God,  to  per- 
form more  faithfully  and  more  effectually  its  office  of 
tribune  to  a  world  of  mjen. 

**Was  there  not  something  else  there  too?  Was  it  not 
as  though  the  unboj-n  babe  of  Unity  Regained  had 
strongly  stirred  in  the  womb?  .  .  .  the  only  corporate 
unity  that  would  be  worth  having,  the  unity  that  is  the 
expression  of  the  desire  of  co-operation,  the  unity  that  is 
the  Will  to  Live,  and  the  Will  to  Act,  Together'' 

4  Echoes  from  Edinburgh  1910.  By  W.  H.  T.  Gairdner. 
New  York,  1910. 


2i6     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

The  slow  but  steady  development  of  what 
might  be  called  a  Christian  race  conscious- 
ness among  Orientals  gives  a  marked  illustra- 
tion of  the  diversity  and  independence  in  out- 
ward ways  and  things,  which,  on  our  view, 
may  be  expected  to  characterize  the  growth  of 
the  kingdom.  The  Eastern  Christian  is  men- 
tally and  spiritually  different  from  his  West- 
ern brother,  but  the  latter  has  too  often  sought 
to  dominate  the  former,  and  to  force  his 
Christian  development  into  Western  moulds, 
with  as  little  success  as  must  always  attend  the 
effort  to  fit  a  round  peg  to  a  square  hole.  The 
original  message  of  Christianity  came  from 
Orientals  to  Orientals.  We  Westerners,  often 
unconsciously,  have  shaped  the  institutions  of 
Christianity,  age  after  age,  in  accordance  with 
oui-  prevailing  habits  of  thought  and  feeling; 
we  should  hail  with  joy  every  visit  of  Eastern 
sages  to  our  Lord,  as  they  bring  him  their  in- 
digenous gifts  of  gold,  frankincense,  and 
myrrh.  Let  there  be  the  natural  unfolding  of 
a  native  Christianity  for  the  Arab  race,  an- 
other for  the  Hindus,  another  for  the  Chi- 


The  Kingdom  217 


nese.  The  essence  and  spirit  of  the  gospel 
would  be  the  same  in  all;  but  the  tendency  to 
preserve  the  individual  traits  of  each  contra- 
dicts, I  believe,  the  probability  of  any  form  of 
external  unity.  The  subject  demands  a  vol- 
ume for  itself;  it  has  been  ably  treated  by 
Professor  Moore  of  Harvard  University  and 
the  late  President  Hall  of  Union  Theological 
Seminary.^ 

If  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  to  follow  the 
analogies  of  nature,  which  is  also  the  king- 
dom of  God,  we  ought  to  look  to  its  past  for 
homogeneity,  and  to  its  present  and  future 
stages  for  "  a  definite,  coherent  heterogene- 
ity.'' Why  should  not  we  be  satisfied  with 
this  goodly  diversity  instead  of  insisting  upon 
a  highly  organized  unity?  To  be  sure,  we 
"are  bound  to  be  dissatisfied  till  all  the  race 
is  one"  (page  68),  but  when  the  multitude  of 
them  that  believe  are  of  one  heart  and  one 
soul,  when  the  Holy  Spirit  of  love  makes  them 

5  The  Naturalization  of  Christianity  in  the  Far  East.  By 
Edward  Caldwell  Moore.  Reprinted  from  the  Harvard  Theo- 
logical Review  for  July,  1908. 

The  Universal  Elements  of  the  Christian  Religion.  By 
Charles  Cuthbert  Hall.  (See  especially  the  last  chapter.) 
New  York,  1905. 


2i8     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

one  in  Christ  Jesus,  we  could  not  secure  a 
higher  unity  and  we  need  not  demand  a  lower. 
It  is  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of 
peace.  If  the  kingdom  of  God  is  righteous- 
ness and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost 
(Rom.  14:  17),  the  Christian  world  is  so  far 
from  having  already  attained — peace,  for  in- 
stance— that  all  its  energies  are  needed  for 
this  spiritual  work.  The  progress  of  Chris- 
tian unity,  in  any  age  of  the  world,  is  accu- 
rately measured  by  the  growth  of  the  kingdom 
in  that  age. 

Looking  back  over  the  ways  we  have 
traversed  in  the  practical  part  of  this  book,  it 
is  plain  that  all  these  paths  converge  to  the  one 
central  idea  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The 
Home  tends  to  anarchy  when  God  is  left  out 
of  the  family  life;  but  the  Christian  Home  is 
the  kingdom  of  God  in  miniature  and  sample 
(page  80).  The  Christian  School  is  an  en- 
gine of  mighty  power  in  the  great  business  of 
making  the  kingdom  of  God  triumphant 
(page  97).  In  the  chapter  on  the  Calling 
we  learned  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  a  social 


The  Kingdom  219 


kingdom  (page  117)  and  we  considered  the 
question  how  the  various  callings  of  men  can 
promote  that  kingdom  (page  123).  The 
State  is  to  become  the  brotherhood  of  man, 
synonymous  with  the  kingdom  of  God  (page 
128).  The  Bible  as  a  means  of  grace  will  con- 
tinue its  conquests  until  the  kingdoms  of  this 
world  become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  (page 
158).  The  local  church  fulfils  the  prophetic 
ideal  of  the  kingdom,  giving  light  and  saving 
life  (page  161).  The  catholic  church  has  its 
only  reason  for  being,  in  its  ministry  to  the 
kingdom  (page  189).  All  these  are  simply 
organs  (or  means)  of  grace,  while  the  king- 
dom is  grace  itself.  But  as  it  is  the  very  na- 
ture of  grace  to  go  forth  in  loving  ministry  to 
its  object,  so  the  divine  grace  that  centres  in 
the  kingdom  is  ever  flowing  back  to  bless  the 
Home,  the  School,  the  State,  and  all.  The 
ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide  would  give  but  a 
feeble  analogy;  the  kingdom  of  God  is  the 
supreme  organism  (page  loi),  whereof  each 
part  is  at  the  same  time  the  means  and  the  end 
of  all  the  rest. 


220    The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

If  the  kingdom  is  thus  the  central  power 
in  humanity,  what  is  the  central  power  in  the 
kingdom?  Surely  the  King  himself;  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  On  his  head 
are  many  crowns;  nothing  human  is  foreign 
to  the  sphere  of  his  peaceful  conquest  (page 
207) .  Of  him  and  through  him  and  unto  him 
are  all  things.  Since  he  is  all-sufficient,  we 
need  no  pope  or  super-pope,  whether  as  me- 
diator or  as  titular  head.  Paul  was  looking 
unto  Jesus  when  he  sent  to  his  poor  converts, 
and  to  us  also,  the  glad  message  of  the  four 
alls  (II  Cor.  9:8):  "  God  is  able  to  make 
all  grace  abound  toward  you;  that  ye,  always 
having  all-sufficiency  in  all  things,  may 
abound  to  every  good  work." 


CHAPTER  X 

RETROSPECT 

This  chapter  is  designed  to  be  both  a  sum- 
mary and  a  supplement;  to  review  the  course 
of  the  argument  and  to  strengthen  it  here  and 
there.  The  title  of  the  book — the  meaning 
of  Christian  unity — is  taken  in  two  senses; 
the  idea  of  Christian  unity,  and  what  it  means 
to  uS.  The  former  is  the  subject  of  Part 
First.  Christ  prayed  that  all  his  people 
might  be  one;  that  is,  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
might  dwell  in  them  and  work  through  them 
in  ever  growing  power.  His  teachings,  which 
are  abundant  and  clear,  are  In  full  harmony 
with  this  interpretation.  Other  interpreta- 
tions have  been  held,  but  no  attempt  is  made 
here  to  examine  them  in  detail. 

Part  Second  investigates  the  practical  side 
of  Christian  unity,  and  this  discloses  a  bewil- 
dering variety  of  opinions.  As  the  reader 
may  have  perceived,  I  have  no  great  rever- 

221 


222     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

ence  for  bibliographies.  They  are  useful  to 
candidates  for  the  doctorate,  but  the  majority 
of  our  fellowmen  are  still,  perhaps,  outside 
that  category.  Any  one  who  wishes  to  pe- 
ruse a  hundred  and  fifty  volumes  bearing 
on  our  chapter  VII  will  find  them  listed  in 
Mr.  Elliott's  '^Making  Good  in  the  Local 
Church"  (see  above,  page  170).  A  selection, 
rather  than  collection,  of  books  relating  to 
chapter  VIII  appears  at  the  end  of  Bishop 
Brown's  ^'Level  Plan"  (above,  page  188). 
This  has  the  merit  of  indicating,  in  the  case  of 
each  book,  the  standpoint  of  its  author.  See 
also  A  Bibliography  of  Topics  related  to 
Church  Unity.  By  the  Rev.  F.  J.  Hall,  D.D. 
(a  pamphlet  to  be  had  of  Robert  H.  Gardiner, 
Gardiner,  Me.).  Another  important  list, 
which  serves  to  illustrate  chapters  IV  and 
V,  especially  the  former,  is  in  Dr.  Vedder's 
recent  book.^  If  there  are  readers  who  de- 
sire a  few  thousand  volumes  germane  to 
the  other  chapters  of  Part  II,  they  can  ob- 

1  The  Gospel  of  Jesus  and  the  Problems  of  Democracy.     By 
Henry  C.  Vedder.     New  York,  1914. 


Retrospect  223 


tain  them  by  consulting  the  United  States 
Catalogue  (found  in  all  leading  libraries) 
under  such  titles  as  Family,  Home,  Educa- 
tion, Teaching,  Bible,  Christian  Life,  Chris- 
tianity, Kingdom  of  God.  It  has  seemed  pref- 
erable to  give  references  as  they  naturally 
came  up  in  the  progress  of  the  book. 

Returning,  then,  to  the  Cardinal  Precept 
(Part  I,  Chapter  I),  I  make  grateful  mention 
of  Dr.  Swete's  book  noted  below,^  the  rather, 
as  it  furnishes  a  welcome  vindication  of  the 
use  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  as  authentic  (above, 
page  62).  Dr.  Swete  is  not  only  a  Professor 
in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  but  also,  as 
all  scholars  know,  he  has  stood  for  many  years 
in  the  front  rank  of  biblical  critics;  it  needs 
only  to  mention,  among  various  contributions, 
his  standard  edition  of  the  Septuagint  and  his 
critical  commentaries  on  the  Gospel  of  Mark 
and  the  Apocalypse  of  John.  Professor 
Swete  is  willing  to  concede  that  in  some  early 
passages  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  reflections  of 

2  The  Last  Discourse  and  Prayer  of  Our  Lord.  A  Study  of 
John  XIV-XVIL    By  Henry  Barclay  Swete.    London,  191 3. 


224     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

the  Evangelist  himself  have  so  blended  with 
the  words  of  our  Lord  that  it  is  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish them.  But  after  long  and  careful 
study  of  these  closing  discourses,  together  with 
the  prayer  in  Chapter  XVII,  he  is  convinced 
(page  x)  "that  they  approach  as  near  to  the 
words  actually  spoken  by  our  Lord  as  the 
memory  of  one  who  heard  them  can  bring  us. 
...  I  cannot  escape  from  the  feeling  that  a 
greater  than  the  greatest  of  the  Evangelists  is 
here."  Swete,  like  Godet  (above,  page  44), 
is  inclined  to  drop  the  word  one  before  in  us 
in  John  17:21.  His  remarks  on  verse  23 
show  that  he  shares  the  common  view  of  the 
effect  of  external  Christian  unity  upon  the 
world,  on  which  I  commented  in  Chapter 
VIIL 

We  pass  on  to  Chapter  11.  An  excellent 
book  on  the  Lord's  Prayer  is  a  modest  volume 
containing  a  series  of  sermons  by  Dr.  William 
Walter  Woodworth  (Boston,  1891).  The 
meaning  of  Christian  unity  is  brought  out  in 
his  comments  on  "Our  Father." 

In  speaking  of  the  Parables  (Chapter  III) 


Retrospect  225 


allusion  was  made  (pages  33,  54)  to  the  study 
by  James  Stirling:  ^'Christ's  vision  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."  As  it  is  a  leading  thesis 
of  my  own  book  that  Christian  unity  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  I  call  especial  attention  to 
his  grouping  of  all  the  parables  (he  makes 
them  twenty-nine  in  number)  under  six 
classes,  each  presenting  a  different  aspect  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.  A  still  later  book, 
Jesus  and  His  Parables,  by  George  Murray 
(Edinburgh,  1914),  contains  an  important 
section  on  The  Course  of  the  Kingdom,  pages 
216-272,  compare  Section  3,  Fellowship  with 
God  the  Ideal,  pages  174-215. 

This  last  thought,  Fellowship  with  God, 
adds  one  more  synonym  for  Christian  unity 
to  those  I  have  mentioned  in  Part  I,  Chapter 
IV,  *^The  underlying  harmony  of  Christ's 
teachings."  More  might  well  be  made,  than 
is  made  there,  of  a  negative  fact  which  em- 
phasizes that  harmony;  namely,  that  Jesus  is 
almost  totally  silent  on  the  subject  of  organ- 
izing his  kingdom  into  a  body  politic.  The 
word  church  he  uses  only  twice.     "Tell  it 


226     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

unto  the  church,"  in  Matthew  i8:  17,  relates 
to  such  local  gatherings  as  the  Jews  had 
long  known.  "Upon  this  rock  I  will  build 
my  church,"  in  Matthew  16:  18,  followed  im- 
mediately by  the  bestowal  of  the  keys  in  verse 
nineteen,  was  not  spoken  to  Peter  alone;  see 
18:18,  itself  made  universal  by  18:19,  20. 
The  fellowship  in  God  of  united  Christians 
has  been  in  every  age  the  key  to  open  the  king- 
dom of  heaven;  and  conversely,  they  who  par- 
ticipate in  the  spirit  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
that  is,  the  brotherhood  of  love,  illustrate,  just 
in  the  degree  of  that  participation,  the  mean- 
ing of  Christian  unity,  which  embraces  all 
men  potentially  and  all  Christians  actually. 

At  the  outset  of  Part  II,  I  have  discussed 
the  true  point  of  view  for  considering  the 
practical  part  of  the  subject.  Christian  unity 
is  to  be  furthered,  not  by  clamping  church 
bodies  together,  for  their  internal  friction 
would  be  heightened  instead  of  cancelled. 
Nor  is  it  by  reducing  such  bodies  to  their  low- 
est terms,  and  uniting  the  residue,  for  thereby 
much  that  is  valuable  in  each  would  be  lost. 


Retrospect  227 


Nor  is  it  (probably)  by  combining  what  all 
regard  as  their  most  distinctive  features;  there 
is  danger  that  unchristian  elements  would  ap- 
pear in  the  corporate  result. 

Instead  of  beginning  at  the  top,  as  all  these 
theories  do,  we  should  begin  at  the  bottom, 
each  Christian  loving  his  neighbors  with  sin- 
cere devotion  and  winning  them  thus  to 
Christ,  and  all  these  Christian  neighborhoods 
gradually  blending  and  expanding,  until  the 
whole  world  would  become  a  fellowship  of 
brothers.  This  was  Christ's  simple  program; 
it  has  never  been  thoroughly  tried,  but  it  is 
never  too  late  to  carry  it  out.  There  are 
helps,  close  at  hand,  in  what  may  be  called 
the  unconventional  means  of  grace. 

First,  the  home.  We  put  the  emphasis  in 
the  wrong  place  when  we  ask  what  we  can  do 
to  help  the  home;  say  rather,  what  can  the 
home  do  to  help  the  kingdom?  It  is  a  mis- 
take that  is  even  worse  to  emphasize  the  de- 
generacy of  the  modern  home;  there  are 
multitudes  of  genuine  Christian  families,  each 
one   the   salt   to   preserve   and   the   light  to 


228     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

illumine  the  community.  The  best  work  for 
the  kingdom  is  done  for  children  and  youth 
in  their  own  homes,  where  are  implanted  feel- 
ings and  habits  of  reverence,  dependence, 
trust,  obedience,  culminating  in  faith,  hope 
and  love.  We  should  beware  of  obstructing 
the  proper  work  of  the  home  by  calling  away 
its  members  so  often  to  less  imperative  forms 
of  Christian  service. 

From  the  home  the  normal  child  goes  to  the 
school,  but  does  not  step  thereby  outside  the 
sphere  of  the  kingdom.  A  vast  number  of 
children,  who  never  come  under  the  sway 
of  the  means  of  grace  at  home,  are  reached 
and  moulded  for  good  by  the  Christian  atmos- 
phere of  the  school.  A  healthy  discipline  is 
there,  for  those  who  would  otherwise  miss  it; 
order,  application,  manliness,  democracy, 
characterize  these  centres  of  young  life.  In- 
dividual traits  are  not  toned  down  and  oblit- 
erated, but  developed  rather  to  their  truest 
expression.  Education,  in  its  inmost  mean- 
ing, is  genuinely  Christian,  as  the  greatest 
educators  have  testified. 


Retrospect  229 


^^The  kingdom  of  God  grows  like  a  tree, 
ever  assimilating  new  material"  (page  105). 
The  home  and  the  school  are  not  its  only 
feeders.  God  calls  us  all  to  our  daily  work, 
desiring  no  drones  in  his  hive;  and  so  that 
daily  work,  a  trade,  a  profession,  or  what  not, 
is  our  calling,  an  unconventional  means  of 
grace.  The  one  principle  to  regulate  and 
elevate  the  relations  of  all  employers  and  all 
employed  is  found  in  the  precept:  "One  is 
your  Master,  even  Christ;  and  all  ye  are 
brethren."  Nothing  is  settled  until  it  is  set- 
tled right;  God  requires  truth  in  the  inward 
parts.  Envy  and  inefficiency  on  the  part  of 
workmen  are  fatal  to  the  progress  of  God's 
kingdom;  so  are  injustice,  pride  and  tyranny 
in  the  employing  class.  The  Christian  pub- 
lic should  never  sit  down  at.  ease  until  fair 
dealing  prevails  on  all  sides;  then  will  God's 
kingdom  come  and  his  will  be  done  in  earth 
as  in  heaven. 

We  come  next  to  the  State,  whose  relation 
to  the  Church  has  been  the  theme  of  perpetual 
disputes.     Neither  of  these  two  has  any  inde- 


230     The  Meaning  of  Christian   Unity 

pendent  authority;  both  are  God's  ministers 
for  the  ultimate  end  of  his  kingdom.  A 
State,  for  instance,  can  demand  the  service  of 
its  subjects,  and  also  their  lives,  which  it  is 
cruelly  sacrificing  even  now  by  the  hundred 
thousand;  but  after  that  it  has  nothing  more 
that  it  can  do,  whereas  the  kingdom  is  an 
everlasting  kingdom.  The  State,  according 
to  its  true  conception,  is  humanity  organized 
for  government;  it  is  the  political  organ  of 
the  brotherhood  of  mankind,  and  it  is  a  blun- 
der as  well  as  a  crime  for  one  State  to  prey  on 
another.  Out  of  the  present  turmoil  will 
emerge  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth, 
wherein  dwelleth  righteousness;  for  human- 
ity sweeps  onward  to  the  one  future  certainty; 
namely,  that  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are 
to  become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord. 

The  Bible  may  be  regarded  in  different  as- 
pects, but  all  must  agree  that  it  is  a  powerful 
means  of  grace.  It  finds  us  at  the  greatest 
depths  of  our  being,  and  through  its  touch  of 
Spirit  it  makes  the  whole  world  kin.  God  is 
in  it  and  man  is  in  it;  they  are  not  in  opposi- 


Retrospect  231 


tion,  as  is  falsely  assumed  by  those  who  would 
exalt  or  disparage  either,  but  in  conjunction, 
and  that  too  of  so  intimate  a  kind,  that  the 
product  resembles  less  a  physical  mixture 
than  a  chemical  combination.  The  unique 
majesty  of  the  Bible  becomes  most  impressive 
when  we  ascend  to  its  loftiest  mountain  peak 
and  behold  the  glory  of  redemption  in  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ.  Here  we  find  the  true 
meaning  of  Christian  unity,  for  the  whole  race 
will  be  one  when  and  only  when  it  is  one  in 
Christ. 

The  local  church  is  another  means  of  grace. 
It  is  its  blessed  mission  to  save  life ;  the  whole 
life,  in  all  its  phases  and  in  all  its  powers. 
No  single  method,  as  that  of  the  revivalist,  or 
that  of  institutional  machinery,  should  limit 
its  activities;  like  Terence,  it  should  count 
nothing  that  belongs  to  man  to  be  foreign  to 
itself.  Christian  unity  is  impossible  on  any 
narrow  ground;  but  every  true  church  is  en- 
gaged in  large  and  universal  enterprises 
which  directly  promote  that  unity,  such  as  the 
Sunday  School,  the  preaching  of  the  gospel. 


232     The  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

the  development  of  Christian  character  in  the 
whole  social  life  of  the  community.  The 
function  of  the  church  is  inspirational,  and 
the  spirit  it  inspires  is  that  of  hearty,  universal 
brotherhood. 

The  subject  of  the  catholic  church  brings 
us  face  to  face  with  two  clashing  opinions  as 
to  the  very  nature  of  the  church;  the  one 
going  back  to  a  supposed  apostolic  succession, 
the  other  embracing  in  the  church  all  who  fol- 
low Christ.  The  feasibility  and  flexibility  of 
this  latter  conception  is  exemplified  on  a  large 
scale  by  the  wide  activities  of  the  Federal 
Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America. 
The  other  conception  is  exemplified  in  a 
document  lately  issued  by  the  Bishop  of  Zan- 
zibar.^ I  quote  literally,  without  comment, 
from  these  proposals. 

"6.     The  Council  shall  not  allow  members  to  raise  ques- 
tions  affecting    the    Christian    ministry    and    sacra- 
ments, nor  interfere  in  any  way  with   represented 
Churches  in  their  views  of  the  same.      (See  Note  4.) 
7.     The  Council  shall  take  no  share  in  any  policy  by 

3  Proposals  for  a  central  missionary  Council  of  Episcopal  and 
non-Episcopal  Churches  in  East  Africa.  By  Frank  Weston, 
D.D.>  Bishop  of  Zanzibar.    London,  1914. 


Retrospect  233 


which  Communicants  of  any  one  represented  Church 
shall  receive  Holy  Communion  in  another  Church. 
(See  Note  4.) 

Note  4.  §  6  and  7.  These  clauses  safeguard  the  dog- 
matic position  of  each  Church  and  Society.  The  strict 
observance  of  them  will  enable  men  who  think  with  me 
to  sit  upon  the  Council;  while  the  disregard  of  them 
would  result  in  many  of  us  severing  ourselves  from  those 
who  had  set  them  at  naught. 

This  is  a  hard  saying;  but,  in  fact,  it  only  means  that 
some  of  us  are  so  sincerely  convinced  of  the  Episcopal 
position  that  we  feel  bound  in  honour  not  to  surrender  it. 
And  we  expect  the  members  of  non-Episcopal  churches  to 
feel  as  strongly  about  their  own  several  positions. 

Let  us  each  be  strict  in  observing  those  points  for  the 
sake  of  which  we  feel  compelled  to  keep  the  Church  in 
disunion." 


As  all  roads  once  led  to  Rome,  so  all  the 
means  of  grace  which  we  have  found  to  pro- 
mote Christian  unity  have  their  centre  in  the 
kingdom  of  God  (see  pages  218,  219).  Noth- 
ing in  all  history  has  succeeded  like  the  success 
of  that  kingdom,  whether  one  considers  its  ex- 
tent in  time  or  in  space.  Slowly  but  surely  it 
is  realizing  a  more  vital  Christian  unity. 
Christians  go  fifty  different  ways  and  do  fifty 
different  things;  they  are  severed  by  conti- 
nents and  seas,  and  they  have  no  central  or- 
ganization; but  so  long  as  they  hold  the  Head, 


234     ^^^  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity 

they  have  not  only  the  hope  but  the  fruition, 
day  by  day,  of  that  exceeding  great  and 
precious  promise:  It  is  your  Father's  good 
pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom. 

I  call  attention,  in  closing,  to  a  volume 
entitled  The  Catholic  Conception  of  the 
Church^  The  very  fact  that  it  holds  a  dia- 
metrically opposite  position  to  my  own  (for 
it  defends  the  Anglican  theory  of  apostolic 
succession)  makes  more  significant  its  general 
agreement  on  the  nature  of  the  kingdom  of 
God.  This  kingdom,  according  to  Dr.  Simp- 
son, is  the  sphere  over  which  God  presides. 

"The  phrase  Kingdom  of  Heaven  conveys  to  the  mod- 
ern mind  an  idea  of  unearthliness  and  futurity  which  is 
entirely  absent  from  the  phrase  itself,  and  v^^hich  it  v^ould 
not  have  conveyed  to  our  Lord's  contemporaries." 

It  is  an  existing  fact,  he  says,  present  in  germ, 
future  in  consummation ;  imperfect  now,  per- 
fect hereafter.  It  is  not  merely  individual, 
but  also  and  especially  social;  a  social  insti- 
tution on  earth;  a  community  of  men  (pages 
i-io). 

Here,  and  not  in  the  author's  conception  of 

*By  W.  J.  Sparrow  Simpson,  D.D,    New  York,  1914, 


Retrospect  235 


the  Church,  lies  a  genuine  basis  for  Christian 
unity. 

For  as  soon  as  we  ask:  "how  large  is  this 
^community  of  men'  designed  to  be"?  we 
come  back  to  the  all-inclusive  love  of  our 
Father  in  heaven,  who  maketh  his  sun  to  rise 
on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  who  so  loved  the 
world  that  he  gave  his  only-begotten  Son. 
Protestants  though  we  be,  we  join  from  the 
heart  in  the  hymn  of  a  sweet  singer  of  the 
Romanist  faith : — 

It  Is  God ;  His  love  looks  mighty, 
But  is  mightier  than  it  seems. 
'Tis  our  Father;  and  His  fondness 
Goes  far  out  beyond  our  dreams. 

There's  a  wideness  in  God's  mercy 
Like  the  wideness  of  the  sea ; 
There's  a  kindness  in  his  justice, 
Which  is  more  than  liberty. 

For  the  love  of  God  is  broader 
Than  the  measure  of  man's  mind; 
And  the  heart  of  the  Eternal 
Is  most  wonderfully  kind. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


American  Sunday  School  Un- 
ion, 1 80 

Ames,  C.  G.,  The  Lord's 
Prayer,    18 

Armenian,  Coptic  and  Syrian 
Churches,  200 

Ashenhurst,  J.  O.,  The  Day 
of  the  Country  Church, 
170,  177,  178 

Ashworth,  R.  A.,  The  Union 
of      Christian      Forces, 

/95 
Athletics,    disciplinary    value, 

94 
Autocracy,  126 

Baby-story     theory     of     the 

Bible,   144 
Balfour,    Lord,    of    Burleigh, 

215 
Bancroft,    G.,    History   of    the 

United    States,    130 
Beatitudes,   The,   26-30 
Beecher,    W.    J.,    as    biblical 

critic,    142 
The      Prophets      and      the 

Promise,  42 
Begbie,  Harold,  and  reformed 

men,  20 
Bernard,  T.  D.,  The   Central 

Teaching        of        Jesus 

Christ,   3 
Bible,  The,   141-160 

as  a  game  of  chance,  150 
its  power,  158,   159 


Bible,  The,  a  means  of  grace, 

151 

what   is  it?    146 
Bible  classes  for  men,   175 
Biblical   criticism,   62,   141-151 

precepts,    how    far    binding, 

149 
Bibliographies    needless,    124, 

222 
Brahmanists     and     Buddhists, 

self-surrender    of,    16 
Brotherhood    is    to    transform 
the  world,  9 
of   man   is   the   kingdom   of 

God,  128 
versus  strife,   124,   198 
Brown,    W.    M.,    The    Level 
Plan  of   Church   Union, 
vii,    188-190,    196,    197, 
222 
Bunyan,     J.,     The    Jerusalem 

Sinner  Saved,  52 
Burns,  R.,  Poem,  94 
Bushnell,    H.,    Christian    Nur- 
ture, 76,  77 
Happiness    and   Joy,    39 
Work  and  Play,  208 
quoted,  174 


Calling,  The,   105-124 
Calvinism    and    the    Christian 

consciousness,  9 
Capitalists,    how    serve    God's 

kingdom,  iio-ii^ 


239 


240 


Index 


Christian   emblem,  fishing  not 
hunting,   38 
spirit   in   politics   and   liter- 
ature, X,  xi 

Christianity    and    the     Cities, 

137 
Oriental,  216,  217 
Church,  the  Catholic,   180-203 
a  means  to  the  kingdom  of 

God,  189,  205 
theories  of,  contrasted,  181- 

190 
true  theory  of,  192-201 
Whittier    on,    203 
Church,  the  Local,  161-179 
and  revivalists,  168,  169 
and  sociability,  171,  172 
as  parish,   164 
in    a    factory    village,    178, 

179 
life   in  the  world,   177,    178 
uniform      methods      wrong, 

166-174 
varieties,    163-165 
Churches  yoked,  172 
Churchill,  W.,  The  Inside  of 

the  Cup,  xi 
Comenius,    J.    A.,    The    Great 

Didactic,  91,  102 
Congo    Rubber    atrocities,   215 
Conventional  means  of  grace, 

141-220 
Cox,  S.,  The  Book  of  Job  In- 
terpreted, no 
Cuyler,  T.  L.,  as  a  pastor,  169 


Dickens,    C,    novels    alluded 

to,  14,  72  ^ 
Dike,    S.    W.,    views    on    the 

family,  73,  74,  85 
Divine  begetting,  147 


Du  Bois,  W.  E.  B.,  The  Phil- 
adelphia Negro,  135 

Duties    depend    on    doctrines, 
61 
true  point  of  view,  62-71 

Dykes,  J.  O.  books  on  the 
Kingdom,   47 

Ecumenical  unity  futile,  201 

Edinburgh  missionary  confer- 
ence, 212,  213 

Education       and       individual 
traits,  95 
is  religious,  101-104 

Elliott,  E.  E.,  Making  good  in 
the  Local  Church,  170, 
222 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  shot  fired  at 
Concord,  144 

Eschatology,   209-211 

Faber,  F.  W.,  Hymn,  235 
Federation  of    Churches,    192- 

195 
Fellowship  with  God,  225 
Fishing,    a    Christian    emblem, 

Forgiveness  and  the  rule  of 
three,  21 

Fremantle,  W.  H.,  The  World 
as  the  Subject  of  Re- 
demption, 36 

Froebel,  F.,  Education  of 
Man,   103 

Gairdner,  W.  T.  G.,  Echoes 
of       Edinburgh       1910, 

215 

George,     Henry,     land     tax, 

122 
Girard   College,  209 
God  in  business,  106 


Index 


241 


God,  most  men  believe  in,  106 

not  a  great  man,  v 
Godet,    F.,    on    John,   44 
Government,     municipal,     133 
Greek  Church  and   Unity,  200 
Grenfell,   W.   T.,    and   catho- 
licity,   185-188 

Hall,    C.    C,    The    Universal 
Elements   of  the   Chris- 
tian  Religion,   217 
Hall,   F.  J.,  Bibliography,  222 
Hallam,   Arthur,    and   Tenny- 
son,  95,   96 
Happiness  and  joy,  39 
Harris,    S.,   The   Kingdom   of 

Christ   on    Earth,    211 
Hickok,  L.  P.,  Moral  Science, 

131,   132 
Home,   The,    72-88 
beneficent    activity    of,    88 
industrial    pressure    against, 

83 
Is  society,  74 
leavening  power  of,   75 
like  living  tissue,  75,  76 
pushed   aside,   84 
Home    training,    elements    of, 

79,  80,  85 
Hopkins,     M.,    The    Law    of 

Love,    56 
Humanity  Is  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  45 
complex,  X 
enthusiasm  of,  41 
Humility    unites    men,    27 

Isles  of  Shoals,  161 

Jefferson    and    civil    liberty, 

,136 
Jeremiah,  his  greatness,  154 


Jerusalem    and    Philadelphia, 

133-136 
Jesus  Christ,  central  teaching, 

3,   4 
culmination    of    teaching,    4 
foundation    of    concord,    iil 
harmony    of    teachings,    42- 

58 
his  program,  9 

frustrated  by  pride,  70 
separate   sayings    36-41 
silence     concerning     organ- 
izations,   57,   225,   226 
summary    of    teachings,     57 
supremacy,   158,  220 
teachings,      as      related      to 
Unity,  3-58 
Job,  the  Book  of,  108-111,  153, 

154 
John's    Gospel    authentic?    62, 
223 
connects   Paul   with   Sermon 

on  the  Mount,  4 
does    not   ignore   the    King- 
dom of   God,   54,  55 
Jonah,  the  Book  of,  155 
Judge-advocates,  144,  145 

KiKUYU,    187,     188 

Kingdom  of   God,  204-220 
and  evolution,  217 
Includes  all  life,  205-207 
not   apocalyptic,   209-211 
not  unearthly,  234 

Labor  problems,  108-123 

unions,    117-121 
Ladd,    G.    T.,    What    Is    the 

Bible,  151 
Lambeth  in  Boston,  182-185 
Lanier,  S.,  The  Crystal,  156 
Longfellow,  H.  W.,  The  Saga 

of  King  Olaf,  29,  30 


242 


Index 


Lord's  Prayer,  11-24 

each     petition      links     with 
"Our    Father,"    18 

Love,  the  law  of,  56 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  The  Present 
Crisis,    140 

Luke,  the  Gospel  of  Human- 
ity,  54 

Magna  Charta,  129,  130 
Mark's       Gospel,      the      Seed 

growing  secretly,    53 
Matthew's     Gospel     and     the 
Kingdom  of  God,  45-53 
Maurice,    F.    D.,    The    Lord's 

Prayer,   12 
Mayfloiver,  The,  130 
Meekness  not  weakness,  29 
Milton,   Paradise  Lost,   126 
Mohammedan    literature,    156 
Montessori,   M.,   The  Montes- 

sori  method,  103,  104 
Moody,  D,  L.,  remark  on  the 

minor   prophets,    112 
Moore,  E.  C,  The  Naturaliza- 
tion   of    Christianity    in 
the  Far  East,  217 
Moses   and  the  giving  of  the 

Law,    143 
Murray,     George,    Jesus    and 
His  Parables,  225 

Nashville  Conference,  64 
National   Church  not  feasible, 

190 
Nature  not  a  goddess,  ix 

Objections  anticipated,  61,  62, 
89,  129,  204,  205 

Oppenheimer,  F.,  The  State, 
128 


Parables,  The,   30-35 
of  grace,  31,  32 
of  judgment,  32,  33 
of  the  mustard-seed  and  the 
leaven,  34,  35,  211,  212 
Park,  E.  A.,   Convention   Ser- 
mon,  179 
Pessimist's     view     of     church 
divisions,    202 
of  the  family,   80,  81 
Pestalozzi,  J.  H.,  Swan  Song, 

102,  103 
Pope  of  Rome,  not  to   be   de- 
posed,  190 
Prayer,  highest  form  of  divine 
service,  25 
the    Lord's,    11-24 
the  Pharisee's,   v 
Precept,   the   Cardinal,   3-10 
Press,  the  daily,  206 
Pride   separates  men,   26 
Promise,  not  promises,  42 

Quadrilateral,  182,  185 
Quakers,   or   Friends,   viii 

Religion,  source  in  the  home, 

76 
Retrospect,  221-235 
Rhinelander,  P.  M.,  on  Unity, 

67,  68,  157,  191 
Riis,   J.,   Peril    and   Preserva- 
tion of  the  Home,  86 
Robertson,    J.,    Early   Religion 

of  Israel,  145 
Roman    Catholicism    and    the 

Church,  200 
Roosevelt,     T.,     message     to 

Edinburgh    Conference, 

214 

Sacred  Includes  secular,  79 


Index 


243 


Saxe,  J.  G.,  Pyramus  and 
Thisbe,  202 

School,  The,   89-104 

even    for    those    who    have 

good   homes,   91 
public,   unifies,   92-95 

Scoffers  at  religion,  163 

Sects  like  sectors  of  a  circle, 
vii 

Shema,  the  first  great  com- 
mandment, 40 

Simpson,  W.  J.  S.,  The 
Catholic  Conception  of 
the  Church,  234 

Sinai,  Mount,  131 

Social    problems,   123 

Society  for  the  Prevention  of 
Cruelty  to  Animals,  205 

Spencer,  I.  S.,  A  Pastor's 
Sketches,   107 

Spirit  versus  form,  vii,  xii,  209 

State,  The,  125-140 
defined,   132,   133 

Stirling,  J.,  Christ's  Vision 
of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  33,  54,  225 

Storrs,  R.  S.,  Jr.,  The  Divine 
Origin  of  Christianity, 
35,  36 

Strahan,  J.,  The  Book  of  Job 
Interpreted,    no 

Sunday   School,    The,    174-176 

Sunday  School  Times,  The, 
and  biblical  criticism, 
142 

Swete,  H.  B.,  The  Last  Dis- 
course and  Prayer  of 
our  Lord,   223,   224 

Swift,   J.,   Gulliver,  vi 


Thaxter,  C,  Among  the  Isles 
of  Shoals,   162 

Tremaine,  D.  C,  Church  Effi- 
ciency, 165,   175,  177 

Trench,  R.  C,  Notes  on  the 
Parables,  49,  191 

Unconventional     means     of 

grace,  72-140 
Unity    and     (not    or)     Union, 
191 
Christian,    among    Christian 
workers,  20,  202 
and  schism,  63 
by    addition,    not    subtrac- 
tion, 65 
defined,  iii,  57,  58,  68,  225 
a    goal,    not    an    achieve- 
ment,  9 
independent    of    forms,    ix 
inward    and    unobtrusive, 

67,   90 
not  Church  Unity,  v 
not    metaphysical,    8 
Unity,     Christian,     a     present 
fact,  68 
related  to  the  Bible,   157, 

158 
a  thing  of  degrees,  57,  58 
two  aspects,  xii 
the  way  to  obtain,  iii 
Unity,      confessional,       inade- 
quate,   xii 
Universalism,  early  and  later, 
6,  7,  58 

Vedder,  H.  C,  The  Gospel 
of  Jesus  and  the  Prob- 
lems of  Democracy,  222 


War,    the    great,    Iii,    15,  62, 
Teacher    versus    warrior,    97  126,  127,   132,   138 


244 


Index 


Webster,    D.,    Girard    College 

Will  Case,  209 
Weston,     F.,     and    catholicity, 

185-188,  232,  233 
Whittier,   J.    G.,   Hymns,   viii, 

203 
Williamson,     J.,     History     of 

Maine,  162 
Wilson,      W.,      governs      on 

Christian    principles,   x 
The  State,  127 


Woodworth,  W.  W.,  The 
Lord's   Prayer,   224 

Woolman,  John,  representa- 
tive Friend,  viii 

World  conference  of  churches, 
64-66,   181 

Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation,   180 

Young  People's  Society  of 
Christian  Endeavor,  180 


